Ciudadana de sí Misma: The Art of Hailey Pereyra

By Alisha Proffitt Photos By Zach Hutchison 

By the time Hailey Pereyra sits down at her ceramic studio, the room is already full. Filled with questions. Filled with memories, and generations of voices. Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and raised in Mexico City, you could say Hailey’s art is made of clay. But more accurately, it’s made of memories, movement, and the emotional isolation of being stretched between worlds.

Hailey’s art shapes space for memory, for questioning, for healing. Her ceramics are less about aesthetic perfection and more about truth. The truth of migration, of identity, of family, and the emotional terrain of the feeling of not fully belonging anywhere.

As both a nomad and an immigrant, Hailey has lived much of her life in the in-between. Between countries. Between cultures. Between identities. Her work reveals what it’s like to carry a body and a history through places that often don’t want to understand either. “I’ve carried the weight of feeling like I’m not from here, not from there, maybe not from anywhere at all,” she says. While that’s a lovely poetic reflection, it’s also her lived reality.

To be an immigrant in the United States, particularly a Black immigrant woman, is to feel both hyper visible and unseen. It’s to navigate a system that often greets your presence with suspicion. It’s to be expected to assimilate, but never quite invited in. It’s to be told you’re lucky to be here, while rarely being asked what it cost you to get here, or what you left behind.

Hailey’s art listens. It holds space for these contradictions. Through her ceramic work, she grapples with the generational dream passed down to so many immigrants, the promise of the “better life.” But whose dream is it, really? For many, it’s a dream built on sacrifice of language, friends and family, comfort, heritage, and sometimes even self. Hailey’s work asks the questions that too often go unspoken. What did we trade away to survive? What parts of ourselves were lost in the crossing?

These are not abstract ideas for her, they are personal. As a Black Latina, Hailey exists at the intersection of multiple forms of erasure. Blackness in Latin America is often marginalized. In the United States, immigrants are frequently reduced to caricatures, either model minorities or burdens. But Hailey’s work says We are more. We are complex. We are layered. We are allowed to take up space.

In her studio, Hailey uses clay to confront that sense of dislocation. Each piece becomes a dialogue not just with her younger self, but with her mother, her sister, and the people whose stories live within her. “Through clay,” she says, “I’ve found a way to hold our stories and begin creating a sense of home on my own terms.” 

Through clay, she’s finding her own answers, ones that don’t require translation. Ceramics have allowed her to ground herself in something steady, something real. It’s through this work that Hailey has begun to craft a new kind of home. A home not tied to a single place on a map, but one that lives in memory, in dialogue, and in her art. 

Her work doesn’t ask for your understanding. It extends to you the gift of witnessing. And in a country where immigrants are often told to be grateful just to exist, Hailey’s art dares to do more. To feel, to question, to belong to herself. And in doing so, she reminds all of us that home isn’t always a pin on a map. Sometimes, it’s what you build from the ground up, with your own hands, your own voice, and your own truth. 

We are all often asked to pick a side, pick a flag, pick a box, Hailey’s work quietly resists. It says I am not from here. I am not from there. I am from everywhere I have been. And I am still becoming. 

Today, Hailey continues to tell her story through her ceramic art and she’s bringing that same thoughtfulness, creativity, and cultural insight to the world of graphic design. With an eye for purposeful visual storytelling, she’s building a career as a graphic designer who creates meaningful work for her clients and community. Designing brand identities, digital experiences, or print media, she approaches every project with the same heart and intentionality that defines her work in ceramics. 

If you’re looking for a designer who brings authenticity, purpose, and a fresh perspective, Hailey Pereyra is one to watch! 

hpereyra.com