Artists in Their Bathrooms: Ceramicist Nadia Rosales Is Unbreakable

Nadia Rosales lounges atop the porcelain commode situated in the corner of her 1960s black-and-white-tiled bathroom as she tells her story. A few years ago, right before the pandemic, her painting and drawing practice started feeling stale. She was looking for something new to try, something challenging.

“I wanted to be bad at something and not know what the heck I was doing," she says. "I decided to start taking pottery classes at the Craft Guild of Dallas, and it was very humbling.”

That is how the Mexican-Persian "Mami" making ceramics in a small suburban town just north of Dallas burst onto the arts and culture scene. Rosales has an extensive portfolio of work with an undeniably distinctive aesthetic and 60k followers from around the globe who can’t get enough.

“When you look at my Instagram you can tell tattoo art is a huge influence,” she says as she emits total cool girl vibes in a gorgeous black corset and jean shorts that show off a plethora of tattoos, mostly in the American traditional style.

Rosales says that her work is the marriage of the folk art aspect of tattooing and her own cultural background. "My dad is Mexican and, you know, pottery from Mexico has a very distinct style, … also, my mom is Iranian and so Persian pottery, all of that and my interest in tattoos, which I've had since I was a very young child," she says, trailing off. "I think as soon as I saw a tattoo I was like, I want that. I want to be covered and I really wanted to be a tattoo artist for a really long time. I haven’t totally given up on that dream. I’m glad that I can explore that artistic practice in a different way with pottery.”

The art of pottery has been around for centuries, and Rosales acknowledges that she's been doing this for only three years. But she's become so successful that other people have started making replicas of her work.

“I think there’s a lot of pottery that is, you know, just glaze and that’s it," she says. "While that is important too, it’s really fun to go beyond that and kind of add an aspect of playfulness and customization to someone’s daily ritual, which is why I focus primarily on functional work, things that people are intimately in contact with on a daily basis.” Rosales' bathroom displays many pieces of art — on the shelves, on the walls and even on the mug from which she's sipping as she answers the question: “What is your favorite thing to do in the bathroom?”

“Really good question. Not taking a bath," she says. "I actually really hate baths. I’m trying to make myself like them.”

She then starts to open cabinets, drawers and built-in closets.

“I like organizing a lot, especially inside the drawers,” she says. She has an abundance of matching containers, all adorned with neatly printed labels identifying the contents. It’s soothing to look at the attention to detail and orderly fashion in which her bathroom has been organized. It recalls the careful and meticulous paintings that make up the body of her work.

With the whole year ahead of her, Rosales has plenty of goals to score ahead. She would love to do more gallery work, and her ultimate dream project is having a solo show where she can have absolute creative control.

Thus far in her artistic journey, Rosales is most proud of her ability to turn her passion into a working business.

“I grew up and everyone was always telling me you can’t make a living with just your art, you always have to have some other source of income," she says. "I do think that is true in a lot of cases, and it was true for me for a while. I'm really proud that I am able to do this and be a living, working artist. It’s pretty cool because I never thought it was possible for a really long time.”