We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful N.Dia Webb. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with N.Dia below.

N.Dia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The work I make currently is the most meaningful thing in my life. My artwork is informed by delving into divergent issues that come from mental health while combating societal stigma surrounding speaking about these struggles. I utilize my own positive and negative experiences while using imagery found in science fiction, comic books and gothic art and architecture. I create heroic female figures that extend into the monumental. The resulting sculptures explore ritual, comfort and destigmatizes the viewer to see the humanity in the entire spectrum of wellbeing. I’ve known that mental health was something I’ve wanted to talk about for a very long time – I was surrounded by a lot of different disorders growing up and learned how to advocate for myself from a very young age. I’ve found that when people talk about mental health or make a representation of it, it is based on the trauma, or the worst behaviors displayed as the main characteristic of what that particular disorder is. This kind of portrayal is what people see on tv or the internet, and we live in an age where people don’t fact check. there is so much misinformation that people believe is a fact for every case. Thats why this work is important to me – I might have bad anxiety and Bipolar di, but it doesn’t define my life. It doesn’t prevent me from having normal days for the rest of my life or a full range of emotions to feel the things we all feel. It is simply just part of my existence and talking about what I’m going through is not the basis of my personality. I make these figures because in some ways they are the role models that I wish I had growing up – Strong, Unapologetic and unashamed. My work isn’t based on trauma – I like to show the realistic side of what it means to live with these divergences that affect life. Sometimes there are heavy moments that don’t feel very good and more times there are moments filled with laughter and excitement. I want this to be an approachable topic in general, instead of the shame I was told to feel as a teenager and young adult. Praying harder doesn’t make my anxiety, or my mood swings more manageable – Finding a decent psychiatrist, who made me feel heard and finding the right way to manage my symptoms made all the difference. I wish that wasn’t something i had to learn on my own, and i definitely want it to be on the record for the next little girl who needs to hear it.

N.Dia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My Name is Dia, and I am from Atlanta, Georgia originally, but I currently live in Cascade, Iowa. I make figure and soft sculpture-based works that talk about mental health. I did undergrad at Kennesaw State University, and I had to take a bunch of art-based electives because I thought I wanted to be an art therapist – I took my first ceramics class in 2014 and was hooked. I still am completely fascinated by psychology, and human behavior, but the clay won. I have always been super obsessed with figurative art and portraits, and the school’s museum had a 7-foot-tall Christina West sculpture on display during that semester. I’m pretty sure I sat in front of that piece for hours – I was just completely enamored by it. I wanted to be able to make that impact. So, I started making figures.

As time progressed, I definitely felt at times that there weren’t positive depictions, or even really responses when my mental health became too much for me. As a teenager, I was told I was being punished by God and needed to Pray harder and my first winter in Iowa was also the first winter where I had experienced snow and winter for a prolonged period and my depression was the worst it has ever been. I feel like I could be really, really sour about how unequipped people are to even respond to someone having a mental health issue arise – and I think those moments (and those two are just the examples I picked) really informed that things need to change. There’s just this misconception that like you go to a psychiatrist and it’s just all fixed with a magic pill.

It’s truly not that simple.
I feel like it took me at least six months to a year to feel like myself again. By that point, a lot of damage had been done to my life.

This experience left me wondering about how I can advocate for people like me who have these issues without being reliant on negative experiences, or what people seem to think symptom management looks like. I have this thing for comics and video games, and always have. They were my escape when my mom started having trouble with Bipolar – and honestly is what started this whole passion for advocation. They still help me feel not so isolated, especially in places where I feel I can’t say that I’m struggling without people responding super negatively / tell me that everyone else is struggling and that I need to suck it up essentially. We can be kinder, and we can do better as people – I know I am not alone in hearing that the challenges other people don’t see as opposed to like a broken bone/or a cough being down-played.

So, it put me in a place where I started making the heroes and representation, I wish existed for people like me – A full range, and amazing. 13-year-old me, needed that. 21-year-old me, needed that. Neither of them would have believed there was a day where it would all fall into place, or that the thing I was supposed to be ashamed of, would be my greatest strength and motivation. I’m not perfect by any means, and I’m not saying my experience is the only one.

I’m doing this for the next person who needs to hear that there might be something wrong, but it will be ok, and it does get easier.

Representation matters y’all. It takes nothing to be kind, and to have patience for your friends and loved ones.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I’ve got a list:

Shows: CAFE 0r Call for entry.org
NYFA.org

College art associations job board as a starting point.

Look up your local arts board/ state arts postings – there are often local shows / local art stuff there that sometimes goes unnoticed.

Instagram art pages often have entire stories dedicated to art calls.

OOOOH. but not just my creative journey.

Ok y’all. if you feel like you need to talk to someone, because you don’t feel like your meds are working or you feel like your world is spiraling out of control – Be honest with yourself. Talk to the people who know you better than anyone, because even in the moments you feel unworthy of anything, your support system is the most important thing. Ask for their patience while you navigate what the next step is – and if you need it, ask them if they notice any sudden changes in behavior etc. my support system surprised me with how many amazing people also struggled and needed help, and also knew what to do. the people who’ve got you, will show you who they are. Call your doctor, or your nurse line and be persistent because chances are they can get you in touch with someone who can help. Search NAMI or Mental health hotlines by state if you don’t know where to start.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

This is a fun one – Non-Creatives always fail to understand that like I’m not just some hippie that got a useless art degree. No amount of explaining will ever make them see it different. Non-creatives also fail to understand that I’m not going to be so thrilled at their “opportunities for exposure”. You wouldn’t haggle with a surgeon, so don’t get mad when I’m not going to do your idea that you want me to do for free. I worked hard to do the things I do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thediawebb.com
• Instagram: @n.diawebb