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How are you doing these days? I am doing great thank you. Could you tell us something about your background? I came from a very dysfunctional childhood background, and when I was old enough to move out and control my own life I turned heavy into art as a way to help me deal with my past. The art I do was a private collection of visuals, almost journal-like depictions, it was a way to reflect and heal. I never had any intention to shared my art with the public, it came with a small door-opening show years ago, which turned into a long fulfilling journey of being an artist. Where were you born? Where in did you grow up when you were young? What kind of schools have you been to? I have never been enrolled in school for art or design, I’m a self-taught artist. However, I am a full-time student studying psychology and I am also looking to start taking classes to become a dog trainer to train therapy dogs. When did you make your first artwork? What did it look like? Why did you make it? I always liked to draw and be creative from my earliest memories. Some of my first works were created with generic brands of crayons, and not very good. One of the very first experiences as a child with painting was taking bright red nail polish, while my mother was preoccupied, and created a beautiful piece of art on her brand new white bedspread. She was not very pleased. Most of the time I created art to express myself, which was much easier than verbal expression. I could keep it to myself, and I didn’t have to share it with anyone or worry about the backlash. I just hid it away. I also did the same with writing. I wrote lots of poetry, short stories and wrote songs to sing myself to sleep. I think many of my works as a young girl showed that I had the talent to be an artist, and even my teachers in elementary school and junior high agreed. They encouraged me to keep creating, and feeling good about it since I had an extremely low self-esteem due to my childhood upbringing. Nowadays you create movie-like stills, combining photography, painting and collage. How did you get the idea to start with this? I went though a time of an extreme emotional low and needed to find salvation in something, I picked up tons of different disciplines to get my mind off of what was going on. I played with water colors, acrylics, painted, did stained glass, made jewelry, collage work, video work, music, played with graphics on the computer, designed website, and while being involved in so many mediums they started to overlap and I found that grouping a couple disciplines together made something totally different and it kept me from being bored with just one thing. Is there a story behind every artwork you make? Most often there is an emotional or a thought overload that drives me to create. It’s never a story I want to tell, but and emotion I want to purge which then creates a story through my visual creation. Once a work is completed, I can almost always tell you the story, an experience or reason for the work, but not before hand. Which of your artworks do you like most? Why? I am enjoying my new series of recent works where the characters have an exposed skeleton. These new works have moved me into another direction, a growth phase if you will. I am still dissecting the reasons, meaning, and process as the subject matter is completely new. You say that you are inspired by pure emotions. Why are they inspiring you? I am a highly emotional person. When someone feels pain, I do – when someone is happy, I feel that as strongly as they do. Sometimes because I am so sensitive to the world and people around me there is a need to purge those emotions, and I turn to creativity to address that. Are there other artist which you look up to? Why? Truly I don’t have any specifics, I am drawn to children because their art is pure. Also any artists that are willing to expose themselves to the world, being open and honest through their medium of choice is who I look up to. I think it’s brave and there are too many artists out there that can do this, that there is too many to name. You also design websites. Do you feel a difference between your own free work and designing websites for customers? When I create my free work I don’t have to worry about how people are going to react. I just do what I love and if someone likes it or they don’t it’s not a matter to me. On the other hand when I am doing websites or other client based design work, including commissions even based in the free work realm I first and foremost have to make sure that my client is going to like that I am doing. I have to be able to take what I know as an artist and designer and create something unique, but usually with guidelines and an audience in mind. I like both sides of the coin; it provides me two totally different ways to approach a project. Besides that you have your own industrial music project, AfterChain. You seem a very busy person to me. Do you still have enough time to go on with that? I am for sure crazy busy, and honestly I am having a hard time being a one woman solo music project, doing all the art shows I do and being involved in big projects like my Silver Era Tarot deck. Music has taken a back seat since I am a solo project doing all the work in the band. AfterChain will remain alive, but the CD and projects involved with it will not be coming as quickly as I would like them too. Right now I am looking for a band to work with since doing the whole solo project is a bit demanding, maybe I could lend myself as a vocalist, and or lyricist to another project to keep music a more active medium in my life. At the moment you’re working on your full album "Perilous Function". What will it sound like? When will the album be ready for release? I believe it should be done in 2011. What can we expect from you in the future? (artworks and music) The Silver Era Tarot which is a fully functioning 78 card tarot deck done in black and white with a hint of color that will be published through Schiffer Publishing in spring 2010. The deck comes with a companion book written by author Russell Moon. I will be releasing my poetry, short story and lyric book called “Obvious Remote Chaos” in the near future. The “Perilous Function” CD should be coming out in early 2011. I am also involved in a couple comic books, films, and other projects. Where can we see your artwork in real life? I take on many gallery showings throughout the year nationally and internationally so it changes all the time. To see more about where I have shows you can visit www.auniakahn.com I always have an updated list on my website, and I am always at new places. Do you have plans to show your work in Holland in the future? I don’t have any shows scheduled in Holland currently, but I would love to come to Holland and share my work. What do you want to say to the readers of Noize Magazine?
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