Diyah Najah
Atlanta, GA
“I love that art chose me. I love being around art. I love that art is in everything and is the most diverse and unifying language on earth.”
Diyah Najah (she/her/hers) was born to be a creator and educator. Her mother and grandmother, in fact, wished for a daughter, and that she would be an artist. With such richly woven heritage, Diyah’s artmaking is emotive and tactile. She is drawn to highly textured materials, materials that melt, that layer, that overlap with opacity and transparency, sourcing both from found materials and traditional media.
Born in Chicago, raised in New Jersey, and now residing in Atlanta, a sense of place bears significance in Diyah’s narrative work. “I frequently travel to New Orleans. I have repeatedly traveled to Cuba. I am currently focusing on various countries in Africa and South America.” Through her travels, Diyah gathers inspiration through the colors, textures, and cultures of each place. These memories are integral to her artwork, and glimpses of their impact can be seen in each piece. “The most beautiful places I have ever seen are the Oregon Coast, the botanical gardens in South Africa during a rainstorm, the Appalachian Mountains after a rainy, warm day, the nighttime sky seen from a plane during a lightning storm, driving through the Tennessee mountains in early morning dew and fog, and anywhere where rivers meet the ocean”, she lists.
Through relief carving, printmaking, and mixed media, Diyah tells stories. “I start a new piece in my mind. Often, I ask for dreams. Sometimes, I am provoked by a story someone tells me.” Diyah makes ‘slow art.’ Her work is both labor intensive, layering and carving and drying between layers, but it is also slow because the artwork’s meaning is unfurled like a keepsake rug, each inch revealing and offering a translation of a heard story filtered through Diyah’s creative language. She focuses on mixed media, including portraiture via lithograph photo techniques and finding ways to include surprise elements such as fibers and fabric.
As a neurodivergent artist, Diyah’s creative practice is rooted in the constant quest for balance, order, and composition, yet her lively mixed-media works allow her to honor her mind’s constant flow of thoughts, movement, and ideas. Art has taught many lessons to Diyah throughout her life including learning that “an overabundance of creativity” is her “balance and anchor to this lifetime.” She has also learned “that a life in which creativity is not centered and prioritized leads to burnout and separation from her better self and a workable level of mental health and agility.”
Diyah completed two post graduate degrees in special education and disability studies. As a former English/Language Arts and visual art teacher, working specifically with students with disabilities, Diyah enjoyed sharing her creative wisdom as well as encouraging students to find and pursue their passions. Her decision to pursue special education was personal and based in advocacy: “I wanted to teach children like myself who slipped through the cracks of public education and who were impacted personally, academically, emotionally, and ultimately professionally by the stigmas and decisions surrounding being a student/child/person with disabilities.”
However, living with ADHD and other comorbidities made balancing the extreme demands of the classroom difficult. Diyah details, “I'm a career educator who has had to leave my place of employment. I am most able to thrive in my studio space and in working short-term creative and educational opportunities outside of the studio.” By partnering with ArtLifting, Diyah can now pursue both talents and passions, giving back to her community in multiple ways. “Essentially, ArtLifting's mission is an answer to my need and capacities”, Diyah shares.
She is passionate about neurodiversity in the educational sector, the workplace, and at large, as well as increasing accessibility. She dreams of moving away from a life of surviving to a life of thriving. “I would like to live from my art and creative endeavors in a way that allows me to take care of myself, teach others, and inspire myself and others,” she says. She dreams of hosting an interactive art exhibition and panel talk featuring neurodiverse artists of all levels. “I hope to shed light on what it is like to live with "invisible disabilities" and how the power of art, art creation, and nature support more healthier lives,” Diyah shares.
Although Diyah’s work is complex in concept and adept in craftsmanship, her practice marries and blurs the line between artist and narrator; sharing authorship perhaps with her mother, her grandmother, Cuba, the Tennessee mountains in the early morning fog and dew, and all of the beautiful places in between.
“My art is most deeply influenced by living with invisible disabilities and the impact they have on my life. Much of my art is in an effort to share the challenges and beauty, the longing, and lifeline. I focus on health and wellness, nature, spirituality, and the language and shared information of art elements and design elements.”
