Published by Naomi Valdivia
Naomi Valdivia is an artist originally from the South Bay area of Los Angeles County, California. Growing up in a large house that was constantly under construction by her grandfather, using mismatched and often found materials heavily influenced her creative mind. There were always nooks and spaces to hide in and create different worlds from her imagination. Because there was no standard in her environment that looked normal, out of the box thinking was the baseline for her developing brain.
Her younger education consisted of strict, evangelical Christian schools until she was dropped into Hollywood for high school at the Fairfax Visual Arts Magnet on Melrose Avenue. This was a culture shock that opened up a whole new world to her creatively, and it was then that she decided to continue her art education with a Bachelors of Fine Arts at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.
Meeting her husband in college, graduating, then having 3 kids while maintaining a career in graphic design and illustration, she has been quite busy with very little time to create as much personal art as she had originally planned. She has held positions in various areas in the field, including scientific, biomedical, patent illustration, label and package printing, and publishing. This career has spanned almost 20 years.
She now resides in the Greater Phoenix area of Arizona, and is excited to work with Aurtistic Zine, as she has only recently discovered that she is on the spectrum. It took all of the time at home during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, away from an office and people that she would constantly mask in front of, for her to be able to research and finally accept the fact that she is Autistic. At first, it was scary, but quickly became freeing. Her mission now is to help educate more people about what Autism actually means and includes; as it is such a broad spectrum, and no two Autistic minds are alike. To be able to combine her identity as an artist and an Autistic person, a truly Aurtistic individual, is extremely meaningful.
View all posts by Naomi Valdivia
Sometimes the best thing you can do for your mental health is just stop and rest. To try to force anything during that time causes more breaks in the defenses. Not my best day but feeling better now. Tomorrow will be better. Time to relax, reset, and pray clearly with my heart while my mind sorts itself out. Be thankful for those who love you enough to allow you to do this and support you during this time. 
Naomivaldivia.com 
Leave a Reply