Rania greatly enjoys being creative, she’s been creating art as long as she can remember. She creates both traditionally (acrylic, watercolor, markers, graphite) and digitally (Adobe, AutoDesk Sketchbook), specializing in portraits, but also create landscapes, casual art, commercial art, motion graphics, and more. Besides art, she’s also passionate about social justice and activism, sociology, and people. You can find more of her art on her Instagram page.
POC Mag: What’s your background? I’m a queer artist born in Lahore, Pakistan, and raised and based in NC, USA.
POC Mag: What does your work aim to say? In all honesty, my work doesn’t always have any profound meaning or message. I create mainly for my own pure enjoyment or for the enjoyment of others through commission or simply by viewership. I do create work with more implicit/explicit meaning, but I create that work with more intention and not typically for the public. I had a period of time that I spent tirelessly creating self-portraits in order to promote my own self-love. This translates to the portraits I create of other people, in which I hope to inspire their self-love (which is not to assume they don’t have any, just hoping to add to it). I have also created a few artworks that are more politically or socially influenced.
POC Mag: Who are your biggest influences? My biggest artistic influence is Cartoon Network animator Louie Zong. He’s an incredibly creative artist and animator who also creates absolutely beautiful and charming independent work and as somebody planning to study animation, his work is my inspiration and aspiration. I am also inspired by Cartoon Network as a whole. I grew up watching them and many of their classics were incredible and original. Courage the Cowardly Dog was my favorite. My biggest non-artistic inspiration that nevertheless influences my work is really not a person so much as the desire to represent. My goal as an artist and as an aspiring animator is to represent the underrepresented. Though I don’t create very much representational art for the public right now, I am working on doing so more frequently.
POC Mag: How have you developed your career? My career is very young, as I am a college student. At the moment I am networking in general and selling artwork and commissions on Instagram. I’m working on finding internships and jobs suited to my skills.
POC Mag: What does your artwork represent? My passion for art and design, and for creating art for myself and other people to enjoy.
POC Mag: Name 3 of your favorite places to dine in the triangle? I love The Flying Biscuit (southern American cuisine, amazing biscuits of course), Bad Daddy’s Burgers (fantastic buffalo chicken sandwich, also a chain. Does that count?), and Ajisai (an East Asian restaurant with amazing sushi), all in Raleigh!
POC Mag: Is there an element of art you enjoy working with most? Why?
It’s hard to choose a favorite. I love working traditionally with acrylic or tube watercolors because using them classically or watering them down gives a lot of versatility. I also love markers because there’s a lot of control in the medium. Working digitally is also fantastic because of greater control and margin for error!
POC Mag: What is the hardest part of creating a painting? Finding a subject. No aspect of creating is easy, but the initial step of figuring out what you want to create and what you want it to say is the most difficult part of the process, at least in my experience.
POC Mag: Where would you like to be in 5 years? Ideally, animating or story-boarding for Cartoon Network. I want to come full circle and work with the creators who instilled the love for animation in me in the first place. But, I’m just as in love with visual design in general, and I know I’d be happy working in graphics.
Connect with Rania on Instagram @arteyesemoji to inquire about rates and to commission work!
