Carlos Heredia

Artist Statement

Carlos Heredia is an artist from Oxnard, California, working primarily in clay and ceramics.  For Carlos, nature and clay are tools for healing and connection in a fast-moving, technological world.  His work is deeply informed by his experiences growing between Southern California and Mexico, where the desert landscapes left a lasting impression.

This body of work grew from a shared journey taken with fellow artists, bringing sculptures into nature to see how the environment shifts their meaning.  For Carlos, this experience revealed a deep connection between ceramics and the earth.  Both are shaped by pressure, heat, and time into forms that echo one another in texture and color.  it reminded him that ceramics carries the essence of nature within us, linking ancient materials to our modern world.

In his installation Three Desiertos, Carlos presents three large bowls mounted on the wall like offerings or ofrendas.  These bowls hold miniature deserts that evoke resilience, solitude, and quiet contemplation.  Though bowls typically nourish, here they offer space for reflection, a microcosm of endurance and loneliness that feels both personal and universal.  

At the center stands the Celestial Grandfather, a figure resting on stacked breeze blocks that call to mind the borderlands that shaped Carlos's upbringing.  This guardian bridges past, present and future, a protector watching over the installation and inviting viewers to consider their own connections to place, memory, and nature.

Through Three Desiertos, Carlos invites viewers into a contemplative space where craft, culture, and ennvironment converge.  His work asks us to pause, reflect, and find healing in the deep relationship between the earth beneath us and the worlds we carry within.

Website:  akambaarts.com