Raised in Carson, California and currently living in Camarillo, Naomi Valdivia considers herself a Southern Californian artist, through and through. After attending the Fairfax Visual Arts Magnet high school in Hollywood, Valdivia earned her BFA in illustration at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Her experiences in Los Angeles’ multicultural environment often influences her artwork, especially since her own heritage is a mesh of different backgrounds, including Japanese, Filipino, and Caucasian elements. Valdivia’s artwork is an expression of this multiculturalism, with particular emphasis on religious and Mexican themes.

Although Valdivia has many cultural influences, her work is obviously her own. Her unique style has been described as textural and tonal, as she experiments with interesting materials and unexpected color schemes. Because her work is mostly digital, Valdivia has endless possibilities for her creations and she enjoys “mixing the clean vector quality of [Adobe] Illustrator with the many painterly possibilities of [Adobe] Photoshop.” Perhaps in contrast to the technicalities of digital art, Valdivia’s work is completely heartfelt and comes from an emotional place; she has always been intuitive in her decisions in life and this is apparent in her artwork. Each piece is born of emotional expression, often developed very differently from any other; through this, she gets to learn something new with every piece of art she creates.

Valdivia currently works as a graphic designed and freelance illustrator lending her talents to commercial artwork, children’s books, and her own, personal work.