Gina Herrera’s found-object sculptures look like they’re coming alive

Sculptor Gina Herrera dreams of creating art works and placing them in places people would never imagine, like somewhere deep in the Amazon rainforest or at the bottom of the ocean. The artworks would either biodegrade or live forever, waiting to be discovered. Herrera thinks of the idea as a chance for her fans to embark on pilgrimages to connect with art and nature.

Herrera, an educator and military veteran, is one of the three artists whose work is on display at the “Three Strong Women” exhibit in the Main Campus Gallery, curated by Phillip Marquez, gallery director and art professor at SAC.

Four of Herrera’s sculptures, her preferred art form, are featured in the exhibit. Each of them are humanoid-looking creations, approximately 6-feet tall, lanky like a tree. Herrera takes inspiration from her own body in these works, mimicking the shape and form of various body parts such as her arm or face and putting the shapes into her sculptures to create a long-lasting connection to her artwork. Two of the sculptures, respectively titled, “The Courageous Beauty” and “A Finicky Purveyor” are made up of objects such as twisted rebars, mannequin legs, giant hand-drawn and carved sheets of metal, variously colored fabrics and ribbons, and even doll heads with rainbow afros made of yarn and thread.

The other two sculptures, titled “A Forthright Advocate” and “The Premiere Belle” are some of Herrera’s newer pieces. “The Premiere Belle” features a long hand-carved metal piece that flows down the back of the sculpture like the train of a dress.

The main focus in all the sculptures are their heads. These doll-creatures feel as though they are about to come to life, reminding me of “Toy Story” when all the toys came to life to scare Sid.

Marquez first saw Herrera’s work in a prior gallery downtown in Santa Ana.

“I was trying to put an emphasis on females so that young women that are maybe taking an art class and see [the exhibit] walking by will see the artwork by these very different artists that come from all different walks of life,” said Marquez. “The title of the show is very upfront. They are three strong women. It tells you exactly what it is.”

Herrera, who has short brown hair and wears chunky bracelets, speaks quickly and passionately about her art. “My sculptures, my artwork, are becoming my spokespeople to try and show what I believe or to make them aware and open their eyes too.”

Herrera chooses to be the outlier in all things related to her art. With welding being a male-dominated medium in the art scene, she chooses to make her pieces “flowy and feminine” and avoids sharp or edgy features that metal sculptures typically have. “I really want people to reflect when they look at my work, asking why did she pick that? Why is she doing this?”

Herrera’s creative process will typically start with a flurry of general ideas and pieces such as a mannequin leg or metal rod and then will build and work from there. She also follows her intuition during the process of wrapping different clothing and materials.

“A lot of the materials is a combination of me and my husband’s clothes, my parent’s clothes, and things that I don’t give to Goodwill,” said Herrera.

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Her creative process can take a lot of time and Herrera will work on a project ranging anywhere from a few months to a few years.

“I had this one project that was on the side for like a year and I didn’t like it, so finally last week I cut it apart and used it for something else,” said Herrera.

When Herrera was growing up in Chicago she always knew she was different being one of the only people of color in her neighborhood.

Since Herrera is half Costa Rican and couldn’t understand Tewa, her native language, her uncle and grandma refused to accept her and did not want to share their stories and traditions with her.

It wasn’t until she was in her late 20s and had finished serving in Iraq as an adjunct general officer that her curiosity was sparked to learn the stories and traditions of her culture.

Now, giving back to the earth, respecting Mother Nature, and environmental justice are concepts that Herrera chooses to fuse into her sculptures by recycling and upcycling objects and old clothes.

This approach comes from her 25 years in the armed forces and witnessing first-hand the long-standing effects of war on the environment.

“Maybe people will question themselves like why am I doing what I’m doing or maybe the people that read about me or me and my story they’ll think “Oh, she’s a veteran!” [with the] stigma that we’re all robots and angular and we love war or a certain president,” said Herrera.

Herrera’s next solo show will take place in September 2025 at Los Angeles Valley College. She has already begun planning new artworks for that exhibit.

Sculptures in the upcoming show will feature clay and steel to morph large head pieces of herself shapeshifting into animal figures such as a bison, deer, black bear, and red tailed hawk to represent the spiritual connection she has with her deceased father. These animals have often appeared to Herrera in nature which makes these sculptures even more special to her.

Herrera has a residency with the Institute of American Indian Arts located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “I will be living, breathing, and eating my art, and that’s where I’m going to try to figure that out,” stated Herrera.

Herrera is proud of her work and hopes to inspire art students to never give up on their dreams and to dig deep to find what truly makes them happy.

Whether people view her work in a gallery or stumble on it in the Amazon, Herrera hopes that experiencing her art will cause people to change the way they view the world. “Trash looks at us the way we look at trash,” said Herrera. “We become disposable and no longer have values like what we are doing to each other and the natural world.”