Arbelaez pulls her inspirations from many places including her Colombian heritage, her South American artistic inspirations, and her American “afterschool cartoon upbringings”. She explained in her artist statement, “I combine these stories with research, familial narratives, and cartoon embellishments that create surreal stories, much to my efforts, of the likes of Gabriel García Márquez. A way to autobiographically narrate history with its ups and downs of humor and tears”. Pulling from many different inspirations allows her to explore the stories behind them, to research and quell her love of learning, and to recreate them in her own artistic vision. When asked about her inspirations, Arbelaez said, “I’d say one of my largest influences is pre-Columbian ceramics mostly from South America in the Andes, and I look at a lot of Peruvian and Colombian ceramics. My family is from Colombia and I’m really interested in the ceramics there so I’m looking at a lot of these pieces but not just the pieces themselves – what their uses were whether it was ritual based, every day use, or symbolism. I also look into researching the people and the language, what was happening at the time, and how these people either continued or become a lost civilization. But that’s just a little part, there’s so many influences in ceramics”. While many of her creations seem larger than life, no holds barred, and beautifully capture her roaring artistic voice, Arbelaez explained that it took a while for her to become comfortable creating in front of others. She said that the best challenge she was ever faced with was in the studios of Ohio State in grad school; “I was more of an interdisciplinary undergrad and then I came into more of ceramic centered and established programs at Ohio State University. At our studios we weren’t allowed to close our studios; we had our individual studios and we weren’t able to cover ourselves or have a door and it made us have to work in front of each other. It was really challenging for me because I felt really intimidated coming into a ceramics program from undergrad that wasn’t my major so I really wanted to hide and I wanted that door. I was trying to figure out ways to cover myself, I would put a box at the front of my desk so I can hide and make because I felt like everything I was doing was wrong or because I came from this program that wasn’t traditional ceramics and that somehow I was doing wasn’t right. It kind of forced me to come out of that shyness which I’m really grateful for now because I do workshops and I’ve done talks in front of hundreds of people showing them how to make and it made me realize that it doesn’t matter how you make or the tools and the techniques that get you to what objects and things that you want to make”.

Arbelaez has left her mark and made some incredible contributions to the ceramics world during her time. Her favorite, and what she considers one of her most important contributions, is her part as an organizer and co-founder of The Color Network. Arbelaez explained that its, “a community networking and database group for artists of color to find each other and to create shows together. We’re looking to create inclusion and have a place where artists can find other artists of color. It’s all different groupings whether it’s utilitarian, sculpture, functional, or social practice. And it’s not just for artists of color; we’ve been used by teachers, curators, and people that are looking to broaden their roster whether they’re giving a presentation or creating a show and they want to make sure that they are being more inclusive and giving people an opportunity to find other artists that they wouldn’t regularly find on their own or in their own communities. We also have mentorships where we pair artists of color together to create that community so it’s been a labor of love and it’s been really amazing getting to interact and create this with my friends and my community”. Arbelaez also hopes to inspire other artists through her own story, and urges them to, “reach out and ask for help. Whether it’s your colleagues and your contemporaries and you just like what they’re making and working on, reach out to them and let them know so you could make shows together, start a movement, create something together. That’s how you do things, you have to work with your contemporaries and make things for you; if you’re not being given opportunities, you have to make opportunities. I was very shy and in undergrad and grad school I didn’t ask for a lot of help. It’s not even just shyness, I think I didn’t know how to ask for help or I always felt like a burden so I said, “I’m just going to figure this out on my own”. But don’t do that, ask for help, ask for people to become a mentor. The worst thing that they’re going to say is no, but just ask because people don’t care and they aren’t going to think anything bad of you for asking for help or mentorship”. Natalia Arbelaez is an incredible artist whose work is sweeping the industry and bringing the experiences of her inspirations to life. She’s also spear-heading an important message in this world; there’s not one right way to be an artist, but following your passions is always the right path.