We recently connected with Hiromi Minemura and have shared our conversation below.

Hiromi, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Anyone can make it, but earning an income from it is a challenge, especially with art. Successful people are just the tip of the iceberg; making a living at it is extremely difficult. Still, every day I can make something, and the time I spend preparing what I am going to make next is very important and always fills my head with it.
Before I started ceramics, I worked as a tour coordinator for a Japanese travel agency, traveling with Japanese tourists to foreign countries for 13 years. I loved my job as a tour coordinator because I love talking to people. I can visit many different countries at the same time.
When I started making ceramics, I had a lot of ideas and the urge to create. Three or four years after I started making ceramics, I was able to sell my own work, and I am enjoying it more and more. It was very meaningful to talk to customers and ask them what they were looking for or sometimes their opinions. It is very difficult to make a living with art alone, but in my case, with the support of my husband, I have been able to continue my ceramic art for almost 20 years. It may be difficult to live on art alone, but art is a very important part of our lives. It enriches our minds and connects us with people. Ceramic art is an indispensable part of my life.

Hiromi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started making ceramics in 2004 in New York, and I experienced three pottery studios to learn different techniques. Around 2008, I began participating in studio sales and selling my ceramics. In 2013, I moved to Maryland, found a new studio, and continued to create every day. I participated in studio sales every year, plus year-round sales in the gallery. Since I started selling at the gallery, I have developed a kind of professionalism within myself. It is very satisfying for a creator to have customers choose what I have made. I often make vases and containers/jars that has both Eastern and Western influences. I learned traditional Japanese kintsugi(golden Joinery) in 2019. As a potter, I sometimes crack in the process of making pottery, and I started out hoping to be able to fix it, but now I am being asked to do it by people who have broken their precious pottery and want me to fix it. I moved to San Diego in 2021 from the DC area, where I lived for eight years. I do two things in parallel, pottery making and kintsugi, and I also give pottery workshops at the UCSD Craft Center. And, my work is available at the gallery of Spanish Village in Balboa Park.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As a ceramicist, the most rewarding aspect is seeing from the formless to the tangible. And when it is done precisely as I envisioned it. There are several steps involved in the creation process, and there is a special feeling when the work is finished because I envision the final form and prepare to reach it. The other thing is that I am pleased to see the delight on the customers’ faces when they pick up my work. They’re all one of a kind pieces.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I was not an art major but had always wanted to try ceramics. Due to work commitments, it was impossible, and I started until after I came to the United States. In the past, I often wished I had gone to pottery school, but now that I have met so many fellow potters and learned so much from them in so many different areas, I don’t mind that I didn’t go to pottery school. In the first place, I didn’t think that much about it when I was young. Nowadays, in the age of social networking, this has made it possible to obtain a wealth of information, expanding the range of visual and auditory enjoyment.

Contact Info:

• Website: hiromiceramics.com
• Instagram: @hiromiceramics

Image Credits
Hiromi Ceramics