Meet Natalie Lomeli

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Natalie Lomeli a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Natalie, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

Resilience can be such a strange word. I think a common understanding may be; having the ability to be successful despite ongoing trauma or failures, for me it’s bit deeper than that. For me what the word really means is; continuing to believe that you are valuable and worthy of love despite the people that have harmed you. I think in the past I may have believed that my resilience came from going through a lot of trauma at a young age, but my ability to be productive in the face of trauma didn’t mean that I had healed from that trauma. Looking back I can really say that my resilience came from others who cared enough about me to not only believe in my ability to succeed, but loved me well enough to learn and understand my needs. When you have friends in your corner who love you through your development in life, it really gives you a strong and lasting sense of self where resilience is just a natural outcome of that love.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Right now in my life as an artist I’m focused on the artwork I’m making from the grant I received from Arts Mid Hudson. The work is centered around my experience growing up as an autistic Mexican American, some of the trauma I experienced, and the trauma my parents experienced. One thing that makes this body of work really special is that I’m making it live on Twitch. Making art on Twitch has been such a great way for me to connect with a broader audience as well as socialize and talk about some of these more serious subjects in very nuanced and relatable ways.
One pattern that has become clear to me about the work that I’m making is that the more vulnerable the work is, the better the work is and the better received it is as a whole. Knowing this has made it easier to step into uncomfortable narratives that I’ve historically ignored, especially now that I understand how vulnerability is a universal experience.
The work itself is still life of Papel Picado. Papel Picado are banners that are hung at Mexican celebrations and can be found hanging in Mexican restaurants. I’ve developed a bit of a process around how I make my work over time. I first got really serious about the symbolism of Papel Picado in 2017 when I had a miscarriage. I felt so broken at the time and related to the object of Papel Picado because to me it felt delicate and these pieces had been carved out of it to make it whole. It gave me peace to think that life could be celebrated even with these pieces and pain cut into them.
Now, I create these designs that are based on narratives in my life. Often I make designs with figures in them. Then I make the Papel Picado, photograph it, and use the photos as references for drawings and paintings. It’s starting to get really fun because the work is technically still life and portrays the figure at the same time. In many ways because people are so unfamiliar with Papel Picado many of the shapes feel abstract to them. This is what I love. When a painting or drawing can be so many things at once. It’s ripe for meaning beyond what I’m giving it.
I’m happy to invite anyone who would like to chat or hang out into my digital studio. I stream Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 7-10pm EST at Twitch.tv/mermaidserenade. It’s really a great time and I love it. The grant project will end with a digital presentation of the work on December 14th at 7pm EST. I really hope to see you there!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

That’s a tough question to think about what three areas were most impactful in my journey, but I can give it a try.
First, I’d say go to therapy, ha ha. In all seriousness, especially if you have trauma, learning how to meet your own needs before making any commitments in life is important. Whether it’s therapy or something else, tuning into yourself first is key. It’s like how they tell you to put the oxygen mask on yourself first before helping others on an airplane. You’re not going to be great at anything if you can’t breathe.
Second, make the work you don’t want to do. I spent a lot of time resisting making narrative work because I didn’t want to talk about my trauma or my experience. I think the result of that was for many years I made work that I was very emotionally distant from. It was only through desperation and grief that I turned toward making work that was really scary for me. So whatever work that is inside of you that feels terrifying to make, do that.
Lastly, and I really hate this advice but it’s true, make a lot of work. Just keep making it. Make it until your intuition is louder than your education or your judgment. Make it until you love it.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

I’m going to answer this because I’m overwhelmed for the majority of time I’m awake. What has helped me is to make a discipline out of self validation in these moments. It’s valid to feel overwhelmed. It’s valid to feel angry or upset. It’s valid to cry even. Honestly, crying helps a lot to transition into better emotions. After that, I try to do something that is going to regulate my body. Lately it’s been a lot of body doubling, stim toys, weighted blankets, eating my favorite snacks (which I keep stocked all the time), and cuddling with my cats.
After I’m in a better head space, I like to break things down into smaller steps. Big things only feel big because we can’t see all the small steps it takes to get there. Breaking things down makes it easier to deal with.

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