Conversations with Dana Flores

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dana Flores.

Hi Dana, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am a native Californian, self-taught in the arts of sculptural ceramics and jewelry.
My earliest introduction to art was in high school, where my teacher encouraged me to apply to CalArts. Instead, I chose a completely different path — modeling and acting — which took me to Japan. It was an exciting life, but by my late twenties, even while working steadily and making a good living, I no longer felt impassioned.
As a hobby, I took up ceramics at The Potters Studio in West Los Angeles, and my whole life began to shift. I found myself in the studio from 5pm until 3 or 4 in the morning. I loved everything about it — the wet earth in my hands, the diverse and vibrant community around me.

In 1993 I took nearly a year off to truly find myself. I traveled through Central and South America, spending most of that time in Guatemala, where the arts and culture were rich in texture and color. I became deeply grounded living out of a backpack, helping Indigenous communities while living on their land in the mountains of San Martín Jilotepeque.
During that time I decided I wasn’t going back to LA or the entertainment industry. I moved instead to Portland, Oregon, where I apprenticed at the studio of Andrew MacCorkindale. Oregon is where I truly found my voice in ceramics — hand-building organic forms inspired by the jungles, Mayan ruins, forests, and shorelines I had wandered through on my travels.
My early works were shown at Emerson Troop and in private homes. I then paused to become a chef and run my catering company, Bread and Wine, while raising three daughters. Art happened in the rare pockets of free time I could find.
When Covid arrived, my daughters were young adults and my catering business shut down — after six years of trying to step away from it, the decision was finally made for me. I was free to become a full-time artist.

This period was pivotal. I moved between Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, where the desert offered me something expansive, mysterious, and deeply solitary. It was here that my Giant Prehistoric Petrified Flowers were born. I began small showings, and was soon taken on by Thomas and Mark at Thomas Schoos Design, where I created a stunning installation in his home.
Between 2020 and 2022 I had four gallery shows in Telluride, Colorado — including Vessel at Telluride Fine Arts Gallery, curated by gallerist Eva Chimento, followed by Bloom at the same gallery in 2021, and a show at Slate Grey Gallery in 2022 curated by Allison Cannella. Through Slate Grey I received my first bronze commission, allowing me to push my flowers beyond what ceramics alone could hold. This marked the beginning of my assemblage journey.
Telluride kept pushing me further each time. It was while lying in an ice-cold stream on the back side of town that I came out of the water knowing — I was going to become a jewelry artist.
Today I love my studio and the long hours I get to spend creating. My jewelry can currently be seen at Church Boutique, 8063 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles.

It has been a year and a half since my hands were in clay, yet returning to it feels like stepping back into something completely natural — with ease, determination, and a fluidity of new organic forms finding their way through.
At the end of May I leave for a three-week Artist Residency at Eutopia Artist Residency in Kavala, Greece. I can’t wait to discover what I create there, and how it will shape my practice when I return.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t always been smooth. I came to clay around the age of 28, and life was still very much unfolding — I had no idea where it would lead. After traveling through Central and South America, spending two and a half years in Portland and another six months in Japan, I returned to LA at 34, excited to hand-build again in my studio apartment in Larchmont Village.
I loved what I was making, and that’s when William Emmerson of Emerson Troop began carrying my pieces in his store. They did really well there, and I was constantly making new work while also working as a pastry chef at Good Food Catering. I had started moving toward proposing a show at Bergamot Station — that felt like the next natural step.

Then I put the brakes on everything. I was pregnant with my first daughter, and I needed to rethink what financial stability would look like with a baby and a partner. Things shifted dramatically from there — he was laid off, I was doing private chef work, and together we decided to build something of our own. Bread and Wine became my life for the next 24 years, along with two more daughters and very little time for clay.
But as my daughters got older I carved out more time for myself, and that’s when my Giant Prehistoric Petrified Flowers were born. On March 12th, 2020, I became a full-time artist.
I am now creating some of the best work of my life, and I can’t wait to see what unfolds from here.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My ceramic sculptures and assemblage works are a meditation. I ideally work in the late afternoon with the garage open, the natural light and air coming in just right. I love the music on loud and get into a rhythm — throwing my clay onto the table, forming imperfect slabs that I then hand-shape into petals, each one taking on its own life and form and telling me where it goes on the piece it’s for..

I almost exclusively high-fire at cone 10 as the heat makes the whole flower stretch out and relax differently then when it went in. I then finish with a red iron oxide wash, so when the pieces emerge from the kiln they appear to be made of metal that may look rusted or patina’d. They can stand alone as table sculptures or be mounted on the wall, where I finish them with organic bronze forms to conceal the hardware. Some pieces incorporate bones and raw crystals, which deepens that feeling of having been…
“Unearthed rather than made as though they have always existed underground, waiting for someone with Flores’s sensability to excavate them from myth and memory” critical essay from Ko Kawashima 2025

My jewelry is equally organic in form. Sometimes I begin with a ceramic shape and make molds for my waxes, but my favorite process is forming directly from soft red wax, which is then cast into sterling silver, bronze, or copper. Every setting is made personally for the stone I’ve chosen. I work predominantly with raw stones — crystal quartz, epidote, turquoise, black garnet, and many more. I’ve been collecting rocks, shells, and dried plant matter my whole life, so at least some of it is finally finding its purpose beyond my own shelves. Some of my signature forms include Wild Orchids with gems at the center, Raven Feathers with crystals, and raw stone pendants wrapped in thorns on hand-hammered chokers or vintage chains.
What I am most proud of, above all else, is being a mother to three creative young women. I made their Halloween costumes, crafted their birthdays into experiences, and baked wildly decorated cakes that were their own kind of art. To me, art is all around— the food we eat, spaces we choose to live, the beauty I surround myself with, and the tribe of friends I call family.

Right now I am perhaps best known for my commissioned jewelry work — people come to me with a stone that holds meaning for them, or they sift through what I have and find the piece they can’t leave without.
What sets me apart is that my work exists outside of time. Whether it’s a giant flower that looks as though it has been buried for a thousand years, or a hand-forged wild prehistoric orchid — my pieces look excavated. Ancient. As if nature made them and I simply found them.

I am also a Reiki artist, so there is an energetic intention infused into everything I touch. People don’t simply wear or display my work — they feel it. And it grounds them.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
For me I see the beauty in life even with all the ugliness. I lead with Love in all that I do and I wear my heart on my sleeve, I enjoy to meet people where they are at and am genuinely interested in what others do or have to say. I show up on time and deliver when I say I will unless from a technical difficulty that cant be unchanged.
I never take things personally and I create always for myself first with that love and then release it into the world without expectation. Ther for success resides in me as the person I choose daily to show up as.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://danafloresart.com
• Instagram: @artindarkforests`
• Facebook: Dana Williams flores