Interview with Painter Aunia Kahn
Each painting by Aunia is like a collection of objects and relics so each time I look at a work my eyes are caught on another point of intrigue. I want to try and discover what each element means but I fear I will never achieve such a feat, so I will settle for enjoying them all as a whole and enjoy each works whimsy and passion.
Where are you from and what was life like growing up there?
I grew up in Michigan and it was one of the best places to grow up. The community was kind and generous, and nature was everywhere. Drive ten minutes in any direction and you hit a lake. Keep driving and there is another one, and then another. I spent so much of my childhood in the water, swimming, tubing, boating, camping, building bonfires, collecting Petoskey stones and Indian beads, and going down the algae slide.
I was surrounded by that particular kind of freedom that only comes from growing up near water. After talking to people across the world about their hometowns, I always come back to the same feeling. I grew up in one of the best places in the USA, and the lakes and the people had everything to do with it.
What is your first memory of being creative?
My mother was young when she had me, so we lived with my grandmother in those early years. I loved it. There is something special about being raised with multiple generations under one roof, your mother and your grandmother both shaping who you are.
My mom worked hard to keep things afloat, and one day she treated herself to something she loved, a beautiful light colored bedspread. I painted red nail polish all over it because I thought perhaps it would make a good canvas. I also remember sneaking tiny drawings in pencil along the door moldings, right at the edges where no one would notice. I am not sure why I did not use paper, maybe I was just a rebel.
Can you walk us through your creative process?
Early in my career I came to my work with fully formed ideas. I knew the meaning and the vision before I ever picked up a brush. However, as my style, my inspirations, and my whole world have shifted this last year, I now let the work take me places. It is only when I am done that I begin to truly understand where it came from. At times, I surprise myself!
I try to paint daily, but sometimes other things call to me, making books, hunting for things to collect, following whatever thread is pulling at me. I just go where the energy takes me.Those detours always feed the work anyway.
Recently I closed my web design and marketing agency after 27 years to pursue art with everything I have. It was terrifying to walk away from a steady income and security, but it has meant significantly more time in the studio, and that has changed everything. Once I get an idea sketched out I go at it hard and barely surface for air. I work every day until a piece is finished, because if I walk away and leave something incomplete, I know myself well enough to know I will never go back to it.
How would you describe your style of art?
I describe my work as Contemporary Symbolist Folk, a term I coined. My practice draws deeply from my own French Canadian, German, and Polish heritage, so the folk traditions woven through my work are personal. There are also threads of Pre-Raphaelite and Surrealist influence throughout. Thematically I return again and again to lineage, the natural world, sanctuary, transformation, and the threshold between life and death, brought together through women, animals, nature, vibrant color, and bold decorative patterning.
What are some of your early inspirations and have those changed over the years?
Some of my earliest inspiration came from my other grandmother’s home, which was filled with dolls, tapestries, books, devotional objects, artwork, upholstery, and countless other things that signaled folk tradition. What’s interesting is that those things hit me on a soul level, and yet for most of my creative life, none of it made its way into my art. A lot of that came down to complicated family dynamics growing up. I rejected my heritage for a long time.
It wasn’t until recently, when I realized I just wasn’t happy anymore and my art didn’t match my eccentric, pattern-driven, colorful life, my clothing, my home, that I had to find a way to bring it all together.
I’m also genuinely inspired by children making art, because they simply do not care. They’re not performing for anyone. That freedom is something every artist needs to protect in themselves, because the pressure to be perfect will quietly strangle your creativity if you let it.
What does art mean to you?
Art gives voice to those things that have no voice and it gives purpose and meaning to things that otherwise might go unpoked. It really was personally life saving to me through some of the worst times in my life.
Do you have any hobbies outside of art?
My biggest hobby is collecting. It started in childhood with coins, an obsession with Abraham Lincoln, rocks, and books, lots of books. My first collected artwork came from a small art fair near the Mackinac Bridge in northern Michigan. I found this tiny hand-sculpted dog that fit in my palm, and from that moment all bets were off. There is something about handmade objects that moves me deeply.
As I got older, the collections matured, and now my house has its own Instagram because it is that bizarre. These days I collect original art, antiques, weird one-of-a-kind pieces, and creative works people abandon at thrift stores. I love rescuing them. Strange clothing, oddities, curiosities, if it’s unusual it probably has a place in my home, which is packed wall to wall and shelf to shelf. I may have to start hanging things from the ceiling.
My love for collecting started simply as a childhood joy, but it deepened for a different reason as I got older. When my health made it impossible to leave my home for years, my house became my entire world. So I made it a sanctuary, and I have kept adding to it ever since.
What is a small bit of advice you could give new artists starting in the industry?
Listen to your gut. Do not let others, fads, likes, support, judgment, or any outside noise impact what you want to make. Just do what makes you happy. As cliche as I thought that was for most of my adult life, I have learned deeply that it is true, even if it means alienating everyone and losing all your support. The outside world should not dictate how you show up for your art practice (unless of course, you are a commercial artist).
What projects do you have coming up?
Thank you for asking! I have several group shows on the horizon, along with a solo exhibition at Thinkspace Projects in January 2027 and another solo at Modern Eden Gallery in August 2027. I am also currently developing the Altar of Belonging oracle deck for US Games Systems, which will bring my symbolic visual language into a completely new format which is exciting. I am also working on a couple collaborative book projects and co-curating a few exhibitions.
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