El Paso artist PJ Romero “shares the therapeutic value of ceramics”

In a tiny room on a hidden strip mall in northeast El Paso, on any given day of the week you can find artists—amateurs and experts alike—dipping their fingers in wet clay, shaping plates, vases, mugs and figurines.

And the watchful eye of their benefactor, Phillip John “PJ” Romero, is ever present as they hone their craft and find a peace that can be hard to find outside the doors of his studio.

“I feel like I share the therapeutic value of ceramics,” Romero said. “For some people, it’s very relaxing and it’s become a staple for them.”

Romero first opened the doors of his studio, PJ Romero Artworks, at 120 S. Carolina Drive, three years ago—and now, as the community around his studio grows, so does the building itself. It’s expanding into a vacant space next door, swelling from a limited 500 square feet to a comfortable 2,400 square feet.

“We’ve got it done,” he said, “but we’re all so excited. I’m really excited to make it bigger – I’m trying to turn it from just being a ceramics studio into an art studio.”

But Romero has come many miles before and since realizing his dream, and as that dream grows, there are many more ahead of him.

The path to ceramics

Romero was born in El Paso but spent much of his youth moving around the country, settling in Hawaii, Arizona, South Carolina and California before returning to El Paso at age 15.

After graduating from Riverside High School, Romero tried to go to college but failed. After getting married, having children, and getting divorced, he joined the U.S. Army at age 27.

Romero served two tours in Iraq and spent seven and a half years on active duty until his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb and he was forced to return home to El Paso as a disabled veteran in 2010.

After returning, he enrolled in courses at the University of Texas at El Paso, but he did not enjoy his chosen major, graphic design, as much as he had hoped.

“I absolutely hated it,” he said, laughing. “I guess it wasn’t what I was looking for.”

But during his art studies, Romero came into contact with a wide range of artistic activities, from drawing to painting to ceramics.

“I changed my major almost immediately,” he recalls. “I found art therapy with ceramics very valuable, it helped me a lot with my combat trauma.”

From there, his art reached new heights—he became a teaching assistant in UTEP’s ceramics department, which led to positions leading workshops and classes and eventually landed him a position at the El Paso Museum of Art in 2015—but that all shut down when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020.

“As an artist and employee (at the museum), I didn’t make enough money to get unemployment benefits,” Romero said. “So I had to use my savings.”

That’s when he decided to open his shop with just two pottery wheels, a kiln and “a big old dream.” This month, the shop celebrates its third anniversary.

“I’ve just been doing my best to serve my community and spread the message of art,” he said. “It’s a great time here, it’s a lot of fun. I try my best to show my support to these individual people and my community. It’s become one of my biggest motivations.”

Expanding the community

Keeping his growing art community alive hasn’t always been easy, Romero says. As the sole owner of his art business, he paid for everything he offered, from the clay to the pottery wheels and kilns, out of his own pocket.

“It’s been a big challenge to keep this going, but what keeps me going is the opportunity to help people and the community we’ve created,” he said. “I’m here seven days a week … and I teach three classes a day.”

“Some days I just want to get up and take a day off… but I come here because I have at least two people who come at any hour,” Romero continued. “If I have at least two people, it makes it worth being here.”

But by expanding his studio into adjacent spaces and more than doubling its size, Romero hopes to become more than just a ceramics studio; he also wants to give other artists the opportunity to share their craft.

His vision for the future is to create a nonprofit organization so he can take advantage of state and federal funding opportunities and provide other El Paso artists with the opportunity to teach their art – drawing, painting, printmaking and more – and further grow an already thriving artist community.

“I haven’t figured out all the logistics yet,” he said, “but if I have an artist who wants to teach, he or she can come here and take a three-hour painting class or something like that.”

The new space also offers space for a small exhibition room where Romero and his group of artists can show and view their work.

“It’s just a matter of reorganizing everything,” he said of the task ahead. “The trick is that I have all these wonderful plans, I just have to find creative, alternative ways to achieve those goals and satisfy my customers.”

This article originally appeared in the El Paso Times: El Paso artist PJ Romero brings dreams to life in his ceramics studio