Lariza Iler was born in northern Mexico in 1979 to Humberto and Martha Flores. One of her earliest memories was being seated beside her childhood house’s fireplace and have her dad’s best friend ask her what she wanted to be when she grew up.. “an artist” she replied.
In upper elementary school she had a glimpse of the art world by taking oil painting classes when she was 11, and then some drawing in the art workshop in middle school. But in the rural area where she grew up there weren’t colleges where she could study art, and the recession of 1994 was still being felt in the families economy. So she became a teacher as her whole family dynasty and worked for 10 years with the Mexican Secretary of Education mostly as a kindergarten teacher in low income and rural areas. In 2009 she met the man who would become her husband Donald and together they started a family in 2010. In 2011 Donnie H. was born and a decision was made of leave the classrooms to become a full time mom and eventually a homeschool mom. Days were filled with homeschool co-ops, classes, starting chess clubs in the community and online, extracurricular activities and family time.
However, deep in her heart was still a dream of painting, and painting portraits one day. She heard the oil painting instructor say one day that was the harder thing to learn in painting and she never forgot that. She started buying books about drawing faces and self learned the tools and techniques, putting together her first collection of portraits made with pencil over paper “Victoria Gratitude Collection” and inspiring art collection that was displayed in Del Río Council for the arts in 2014. In 2020 she was able to find a painting challenge of painting acrylic portraits online during the quarantine months under the direction of Mr. Matt Philleo, which helped her to do the transition to color in her portraits. That’s how “The Dream of Portraits” was born. Unfortunately her health declined as she went through uterine cancer a year later, and the art had to wait again. After being able by God’s grace to be in remission, she participated in Del Río Spring fest in Del Río council for the arts where she was awarded first, second and third places awards within a two year frame.
After this second chance to stay alive, her heart has now a deeper appreciation for the beauty around us, and her art intentionally captures real life moments and powerful messages. Her paintings are now displayed in exhibits in South Texas and prints of them can be seen and ordered through her website. Painting is now a strong purpose in her life.
View Lariza's Paintings...
