Romina Tello Lobato sits by the window where she paints in her Shadyside apartment. The painting she is working on features swirls of gold that capture movement or changing light conditions. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
As a college student new to America, I once believed I had to relegate my art to advance in my career. But settling in Pittsburgh, I learned I could progress as a painter and rediscover my roots in the process.
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Para leer esta historia en español.
As I finished my last stroke, I sat back to contemplate my creation: a combination of vibrant colors and geometric figures that resembled the backs of Andean women in typical attires, with braids falling on their backs. It was September, and I had spent three days painting nonstop to have this piece ready for the Pittsburgh Taco Festival, an event celebrating the city’s Latin American community.
This outpouring of colors and shapes was inspired by my Peruvian roots. But it would not have been possible without my Pittsburgh present.
The prior month, I had spent three weeks back home in Lima. The trip arrived at a pivotal time that prompted me to reflect on what is truly important to me and redefine foundational beliefs. I’ve now lived in the U.S. for more than seven years, and every time I return home, I find myself in a different phase of my life, facing a new blend of opportunities and challenges. And every time, my home country has been there providing me with the right elements and perspectives I’ve needed to evolve through them. On this occasion, my time there was soul-nourishing and grounding. It gave me the clarity and strength to move forward with a deep sense of purpose and ambition.
When you leave your home country for an extended period, you start understanding the importance of building a home away from home. You also begin questioning how much of each home you can integrate into your daily life and build into your future.
I have different worlds coexisting inside me: the deep ties of my Peruvian heritage, the imprint of American culture, the analytical precision of my profession and the expressive freedom of my art. I began looking to establish a mature and intentional connection with my country and my culture while living in the U.S. I started to think about the balance of these worlds I would need for a fulfilling life, and I learned this would require opening spaces and sharing parts of my culture and identity in Pittsburgh.
Soon after my return from Peru, I found myself sitting once again in the art studio I set up in my apartment. As inspiration started flowing, I stepped into the ritual of setting up for a new painting. I took out brush after brush and paint after paint. I unwrapped a new canvas, placed it on the easel in front of me and began the three-day painting binge. Although everything was exactly as I had left it before my trip, nothing felt the same. I now understood why I was here: to create a life on my own terms and to honor the multifaceted worlds within me. My art was becoming the bridge that connects the different worlds inside me, and this painting was the first tangible expression of that connection.
Assembling my palette
I was born in Huancayo, a city in the Mantaro Valley, in the Andes of Peru. My earliest memories there are of walks in eucalyptus forests, boat rides on lakes, dipping my feet in rivers — all this set against mountainous backdrops and bright starry nights. Huancayo is a city known for its many festivals where the people, especially women, show a grand display of color in their attires. It is this vibrant celebration of life and color that inspires the bold and lively hues I bring to my paintings.
When I was three, my family moved to the capital, Lima. The city perches on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Lima is a city of contrasts, offering breathtaking summer sunsets and winter days cloaked in fog. Its humid winters, with their perpetual grey skies, have earned it the nickname “Lima la gris,” or Lima the Grey. The coastal setting – and the fresh seafood it offered – has stayed in my memory wherever I have since lived. My memories in Lima include summer trips to the beach with my family and the brisk scent of the sea on early cold school mornings. Moving to Lima introduced me to a more metropolitan lifestyle, shaping much of my formative years until I graduated from high school.
At 17, when it was time to choose a career, I faced a crossroads. Despite aptitude tests pointing me toward visually creative fields, I chose to major in engineering. I hesitated to pursue art professionally, fearing it would lose its essence as a passion if it became my livelihood. I also wanted to explore other skills and interests, so I opted for what felt like a more stable career path.
In 2016, I moved to Florida for my undergraduate studies, where I consciously set aside my passion for art to focus on academics. Though I knew my love for art would always be a part of me, this decision left me feeling indebted to myself, a debt I hoped to repay someday.
By 2020, I was back in Lima. The slow pace of the early pandemic months opened up space for me to rekindle my artistic side. While this process was unfolding, I worked on applications for graduate school. In 2021, I was accepted to pursue a master’s degree in cybersecurity at Carnegie Mellon University, and in August of that year, I embarked on a new journey to live in Pittsburgh.
A city that bridges
I moved here with the aspiration of advancing my academic career and growing professionally, without anticipating that it would also be the place that would fully embrace me as an artist. Yet, during my time in Pittsburgh, a series of events and new connections have shown me that pursuing my artistic journey was not only possible, but deeply supported.
This journey started last summer with a chance encounter. As I was moving out of my apartment, a couple who own an Airbnb came to check out some furniture I was selling and noticed a painting in my living room. They asked if I had created it and mentioned they were on the lookout for paintings by local artists to decorate their Airbnb. They handed me their business card and encouraged me to reach out if I was interested in creating pieces for their spaces and generously offered to pay for the materials. I felt incredibly supported and for the first time, I saw the possibility of making art not just for myself, but for others, as a way to harmonize other people’s spaces.
That seed of possibility stayed with me, and two months later, it began to grow. My roommate came home one evening and handed me a flyer for the Lawrenceville Art Crawl 2023. Intrigued, I headed to Butler Street later that day, just in time to catch the final moments. As I wandered among the vending stands, I interacted with a couple of artists, got to know about their artistic journeys and inquired about the process of having a space in an event like that. The creative energy of the art crawl was contagious, and as I left Lawrenceville that night, I made a promise to myself: I would return next year, not as a visitor, but as a participating artist with my own stand.
That goal gained momentum in March of this year, when I attended the open studio night that Redfishbowl hosts every Thursday and met Nikki, a resident artist at the studio. She stopped at my table to admire the painting I was working on and, to my surprise, invited me to participate in an art exhibit she would be curating in May. The theme of the exhibit was “Dreams and Nightmares,” and each artist was to create a new piece exclusively for the show. As I reflect on that moment, I realize how much Pittsburgh has nurtured my growth as an artist, presenting me with opportunities I hadn’t dared to imagine just a year before.
Self-discovery leads to enriching others
In May, I was among a panel of artists presenting my latest work in public for the first time. I spoke to a small crowd which included some supportive friends. It was my first art piece crafted from conception to be shared and sold. The event also marked the first time my art had been given a platform among an established art scene.
Since then, I’ve participated in the Northside Music Festival in July and the Lawrenceville Art Crawl in August. Finally, in September, I ran a stand at Taco Fest, where I showcased my painting of the Andean woman who bridged all these experiences for me. During each event I’ve felt the connection to the Pittsburgh community grow. I had friends from all around Pittsburgh, and even from different cities, come to support me and buy my art. Just a year after I set myself the goal of running my own stand in Lawrenceville, I had fulfilled this aspiration, and now other artists were approaching me for advice on their own artistic processes.
Almost as if Pittsburgh was urging me to level up as an artist, I’ve been able to start creating a space in this city where my multiple worlds have a home. Where the synergy between those worlds has an outlet. Where the new me has a space to be.
On one hand, my art has turned into a way of self-discovery and self-creation. It is a way to step out of the confines of my own limiting beliefs, a way to embrace uncertainty and change, a way to renew myself. On the other hand, it has allowed me to connect with the city and create moments and spaces where I share my story and enrich Pittsburgh with other realities.
Romina Tammi Tello Lobato is a Peruvian artist living in Pittsburgh who works as a product owner for Allegheny County. Her work can be seen on Instagram @romin.art.ello and she can be reached through firstperson@publicsource.org.
Translation edited by Ladimir Garcia.
This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.