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

Monica, appreciate you joining us today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

I’m happy this is a topic! It hasn’t been directed at me, but I have heard some feedback on my double stacked Styrofoam cup and resin pieces, and that it’s supporting the abuse of prescription medicine aka that syrup! My page is called, “That’s so Htown! and it’s about celebrating the Houston culture, growing up in the area in the 90’s and all of the sights and sounds that come along with it. The cups are made into 1 piece and coated in resin, and the purple spill/drips and ice cubes are resin. When you look at it, I hope you think, “That’s so Htown!” It’s a culture worth celebrating, and I’m proud to be from Houston!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve done a lot of work on myself and was at a place where I was ready to share my creations and my story. I have a few “projects” and my Htown creations are one of them. They are made of mostly resin, clay and Styrofoam. I am a mental health advocate and believer in plant medicine, and also create mmm_ushrooms and they are made of clay and paper. Along with that, I create my Monica chron_ica pieces and they are mostly resin. They all have the same dimensional look and feel, and align with my purpose of bringing awareness to trauma and PTSD and it’s effects on the mind and body. I am passionate about plant medicine as I feel it and talk therapy is what has helped me the most. It’s all mostly wall art, but I also create a few different 3D pieces, like my Grillz! My website is called, ‘projectswithptsd’ which is where another one of my projects are, my blog. For now it’s sharing my Art journey, but that is where I will eventually share my story. I love to collab with other Houston brands! It is important to me to bring awareness to mental health and hopefully inspire by sharing my story!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to bring awareness to mental health and how trauma affects us all. I struggled for so long and needed professional help to deal with my trauma. After 2 decades of surviving, I finally found someone who actually wanted to help me instead of give me a pill. I hope that sharing what all I went through and how I’m starting to overcome it will help inspire others. I’ve always questioned why I went through all that I did, and I feel that the reason is to help others. For so long I wasn’t able to even think about it all let alone talk about it, so the time to share is now, since I am finally able to.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding part of being an Artist is to think of a concept in your head, and actually see it come to life on canvas! Meeting people and connecting with them through my Art is also rewarding! My hope is that my pieces actually takes them back to a time, place or feeling. I hope to create more of an experience when sharing my Art and that people will remember it. For that reason, but also because it’s unique and I hope it’s like nothing you’ve seen before! I would also love to do some volunteer work in the Houston area, especially with kids!

Contact Info:

• Website: projectswithptsd.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com
• Other: Email: [email protected]