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Edwin Tupa

"I'm Edwin Dionicio Tupa Quinto and I was born in Pisac, Cuzco on March 10, 1980. My ceramic art is the legacy of our ancestors. For me, this art is a form of cultural identity that reflects everything that could happen from generation to generation. It carries the ancestral customs, icons and symbols of the Peruvian Andes, of our Inca culture.

"I've worked in ceramics for as long as I can remember. I can recall how I'd first take a piece of wet clay to shape it by hand into different sizes. Then it would go into the kiln to be fired at high temperatures. That hasn't changed. We then polish the piece and decorate it, hand-painting the motifs very carefully so they'll be almost perfect. We use natural pigments because, for us, it is very important to preserve our traditions. Finally, when the piece is finished, we apply a coat of wax and it's ready. I never skip a single one of the steps I first observed my family lovingly carry out.

"Surviving our economic situation was really difficult. There were 11 children and we didn't always have enough to eat. And so from the time we were young, we had to work. This has been one of the greatest challenges in my life.

"To you, my Novica friends, I dedicate my art. I'm grateful that they show our ceramics that sometimes seem lost in time."