Welcome to the 306th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists bring natural dyes to life and restore vessels as they sculpt.Want to take part? Check out our submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us through this form! All mediums and workspaces are welcome, including your home studio.Rember Yahuarcani, Lima, PerúHow long have you been working in this space?Ten years.Describe an average day in your studio.My day begins in the studio by choosing a new canvas to paint on. I don’t paint several paintings at once, but rather focus on a single work, whether large or small. I don’t usually make sketches, but rather paint directly on the canvas. But before choosing the canvas or making the first strokes, I usually eat ampiri, the tobacco essence my ancestors used to heal and dream, and which allows me to ask permission to speak about the myths and stories of my nation. When I’m painting, I think of the myths, the characters, the gods. I mentally walk alongside them. This allows me to capture the words of my grandparents as authentically as possible. I hear their words through each brushstroke. I have no fear or hesitation when creating a character or a stroke because I feel it is sustained by a presence greater and more powerful than the human. The process of painting reinforces my faith in the religiousness of my people and my family. Everything becomes real and palpable.How does the space affect your work?My studio is located in Plaza San Martín, in the Historic Center of Lima, Perú’s capital. It is an emblematic square where the diverse Peruvian population comes out to protest policies that affect them. From the window of the studio, I witness the indignation and struggle of the Peruvian people. Being in this place provokes reflections on the history and reality of Perú, its social processes, and its failed policies regarding the diverse population that makes up the country. Let us not forget that 55 Indigenous nations coexist here, and 48 Native languages are spoken. The mental remoteness of the political class is reflected in this square and leads me to question the future of Indigenous peoples and their struggles to survive in an increasingly polarized world.How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?I have access to various museums, art galleries, cultural centers, and diverse spaces of historical and cultural interest. An interesting dynamic is generated where the population is exposed to different languages of contemporary art, as well as the republican, colonial, and Indigenous history that shapes this country. Although the current government has repressed and censored many artists, spaces continue to be created and invented to voice demands and challenge a government that has plunged us into crime, corruption, and the loss of democratic institutions.What do you love about your studio?I love that it’s located within an architectural complex built for the centennial of Perú’s independence. The emblematic Plaza San Martín houses the neo-colonial Portals of Zela and Pumacahua, and my studio is located within it. Its columns, high ceilings, and ornamentation inspire national and international tourists to photograph and rethink history. Its original wooden floors always inspire me to pick up a canvas and start painting.What do you wish were different?I would like the authorities to promote the development of a contemporary art week to revitalize the art circuit and market, highlighting the historical monuments located in the historic center. I would like an efficient cultural policy to be implemented in the country. I would like Indigenous leaders not to be assassinated; drug trafficking and illegal and legal mining to be severely punished; Indigenous peoples not to be displaced from their territories; and the full force of the law to fall upon the dozens of politicians who govern us today, yet face a series of criminal charges and remain at large. I hope our Indigenous ancestors can die in peace, according to their traditions and in their territories. May they not disturb our peace.What is your favorite local museum?The Central Reserve Bank Museum.What is your favorite art material to work with?I really like natural dyes and acrylics. Drawing with a quill pen and India ink. And the llanchama, the fabric made from the bark of the renaco tree that my ancestors used for clothing, which the family now uses as an artistic medium. The natural dyes move naturally on it and come to life. Everything in the process of making natural dyes and the llanchama was taught to us by the god of painting, whom we call “Fídoma.” Myths tell us that he discovered yellow, red, and black in the earth, flowers, bark, fruits, and leaves. That’s why when we paint, we always remember Fídoma, the first Uitoto painter of the White Heron clan.Leopold Masterson, Hell’s Kitchen, ManhattanHow long have you been working in this space?Three and a half years.Describe an average day in your studio.I listen to news or music on the subway from my apartment to the studio basically every day, usually before noon. I will admit I listen to too much news while I work and shift to music later in the day. At the shop, I start with any time-sensitive projects first; wet clay goes to the front of the line. I like to begin my days with an hour or so of randomness. Some cleaning, finishing up something from yesterday, some reading. Nothing serious. This gives me time to clear my head and play before getting down to more serious things that I can actually screw up. My time morphs pretty organically through the day as I juggle art projects, run errands to fabricators, or switch to merchant mode and sell art and jewelry with my partner Sam Gassman. We share the studio together, so it is constantly changing based on who needs what. One minute I can be working on an amphora for an exhibition and the next I can be restoring a historic Roman vessel or handing off a pair of Victorian earrings. Does that sound dissonant and kinda nuts? Yeah, it should. It is. Each day I run out of steam sometime late at night and head home, wash, rinse, and repeat.How does the space affect your work?Artists will fill any space they have, and I’m no different. Most of us can make any space work for just about anything. I have an equipment and art supply addiction, so I find I have to keep my spaces extremely organized so it can shift between making art (in many, many media) to exhibiting and selling. The space is constantly expanding and contracting and this in turn affects my work in terms of modularity and streamlining processes.How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?The studio, my local gym, the massive tourist crowds, the international grocery store on Ninth Avenue, sushi, Aquihito bar, and the major transit hubs of Port Authority and Penn Station are my environment. I have always tried to put myself in the center of everything. I am next door to the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and it is cool to see what’s up with their open studios. There is also a vibrant group of artists, art dealers, and musicians in my building that I see at open studios and around the neighborhood. But really I travel all around New York City and see that as my environment. The city community is so vast and unending that I feel the studio in Hell’s Kitchen is only one small circle in the massive Venn diagram that is “NYC arts.” But of this very personal diagram, my studio is the center for me as it is the place I can always find creative grounding and bring others into my world.What do you love about your studio?I love the light, space, and view, but most of all the fact that the landlords wired up my kiln and approved it in my lease. The view faces the McGraw-Hill Building which has beautiful Art Deco and Art Moderne green tile. It also faces Port Authority which has a dark, grungy cyber punk feel to it that reflects the surrounding area. It can be a rough place at times, but I love how raw, classic New York City it is.What do you wish were different?The short answer … the price.What is your favorite local museum?It’s cliche but the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That being said, I also love the revamped Frick (specifically their collection of decorative arts).What is your favorite art material to work with?Clay.