Debbie Millman has an ongoing project at PRINT titled “What Matters.” This is an effort to understand the interior life of artists, designers, and creative thinkers. This facet of the project is a request of each invited respondent to answer ten identical questions and submit a nonprofessional photograph.
Mina Alikhani is an artist, painter, woman and citizen of earth here to reflect the times through the filters of her mind and eyes.
What is the thing you like doing most in the world?
Nothing hits harder for me than creating artwork that speaks for the oppressed…Nothing gives me more purpose and satisfaction than speaking up for those whose voices are silenced. Nothing fills my heart like seeking justice for those who suffer at the hands of injustice. I like doing it so much I devoted my whole life to it…it’s not just about “making art” or “being an artist” for me, it’s the subject matter and impact that gives me a reason to keep going. I also love…loving and being in love. What beautiful drug that is am I right?
What is the first memory you have of being creative?
1st grade: I would tune out the teacher’s voice and sketch figures and faces from characters drawn from my vivid imagination and story books. My mother and father divorced when I was 4 and as a result, I was raised with my mother during the school year in northern CA and father in LA during the summer months. My father had a secret opioid/heroin/drinking problem so he would be asleep all day and would leave me to my books, dolls and TV all day every day for months at a time…and in that isolation, abuse and silence. I began to dream of characters that would come to my rescue or be my friends. Creating art became my sense of safety. The figures I drew we’re my friends, my caretakers, the mother and father I wished I had.
My mother was a single working mother doing the best she could to provide for me so sometimes she’d have to stash me in the storage closet of whatever clothing store she was working in at the time and again, it was in those moments of isolation that I leaned heavily into my mind’s eye. It sounds grim, but it was the hand I was dealt in this life and so in the fertile soil of darkness and stillness, my imagination grew into something bigger that that.
What is your biggest regret?
All the times I wasn’t brave or strong enough to trust myself and my intuition in life, in love, in business and especially in my creative endeavors. There was a time I looked outward for validation, or for external resources to qualify the importance of my work. These days, I look within—all the answers are there—they’ve always been there.
How have you gotten over heartbreak?
Tears, painting, praying, talking my friends’ ears off, silence, meditation, sunrise yoga, going on benders, floating in the ocean, walking through the woods, psychedelics in the desert, rebound sex in new cities, owning my shit, forgiving myself and above all, letting time do its thing.
What makes you cry?
Knowing that there are innocent people and animals all around the world being brutally tortured every day. Stories, movies, songs that tell the story of broken hearts or love lost. When I think of the times I’ve been unfair and hurt people who loved me.
How long does the pride and joy of accomplishing something last for you?
Maybe a day?
Do you believe in an afterlife, and if so, what does that look like to you?
Yes, I believe there is an afterlife. What does it look like to me? I dunno, I’m still trying understand the human experience so…
What do you hate most about yourself?
Nothing. I’m working on being nicer to myself these days.
What do you love most about yourself?
My passionate heart and my resilient mind.
What is your absolute favorite meal?
That meal you have post sex after smoking a joint with the one you love, yeah, that’s the one.