The Apple Garden Print

My name is Ainura Ashirova Barron. I am an artist based in St. Charles, MO. I moved to the United States in 2016 to pursue my dream, to do a master degree program in fine arts. I hold a MFA in Visual Art from Missouri State University (2019). My current body of work references my childhood memories and gives me a place to investigate my roots. I’m finding ways to expose the spirit and history of my family. In a way, the work communicates my life passage from the perspective of a person who grew up during the era of the Soviet Union, experiencing Perestroika and Glasnost’ under Gorbachev’s leadership, and who came of age when the Iron Curtain was demolished, bringing an end to the Cold War and giving all of us young people at that time a way to approach adulthood. It was challenging and exciting at the same time. The spirit of freedom was in the air and we all believed that we could change the world. Those transformations of ideology and our reality made us stronger and flexible. We all witnessed how the ideology and Soviet regime and values collapsed and our lifestyle was breaking apart before our eyes. As an undergraduate student, I studied arts many years ago. However, the dramatic changes that took place during the early years of Kazakhstan independence (my home country), caused me to shift my career aspirations in the direction of art administration and management. I was thus able to gain new perspectives when the borders of my country opened. I had a chance to travel, see the world, and learn more. I developed a broad understanding of arts and culture, obtaining more knowledge that I would not have gotten had I remained working as an artist in a studio. The experience of seeing international art and working with contemporary artists eventually lead me back to my creative skills and I started making art again. I returned to my practice and in my work I have attempted to use the knowledge I gained for a specific investigation that illuminates not only my personal identity but also my personal history and cultural meaning.