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Her choice of subject, predominantly women and flowers, happened transitionally as she was coming from a more negative phase of her life and blooming into a more positive place. "I started learning how to express myself in my work. All the women are metaphorically presenting emotions and ideas, and how we all grow from the inside out," Zana explains. Unlike some other artists who stick to one medium, Zana works in whatever she feels like at the time, from acrylic to oil to pen and ink, and she almost always chooses to go extra large in her pieces so her women stand larger than life. She quips that maybe she does this because she's small but feels what she wants to express is so grand. Zana still calls New Orleans home and recently opened Zana Brown Studio at 3908 Magazine Street. She splits her time between New Orleans and the mountains of Eastern Serbia where her family maintains a vacation home, finding inspiration from both locales. But much of what sparks her creativity these days comes from travel. She takes every opportunity she has to visit other areas, with Italy being a favorite. "Italy is inspirational with every area so rich in culture and history, but I am truly an art nomad. In every place I visit I pick up something that stays with me," Zana says. She works on the road, buying loose canvases and painting on the ground then folding them up to take home. "I bring them to a framing shop to have them stretched over frames and then I refinish them in the studio." e only downside that Zana can see from travel is that she has to leave her beloved tortoise, Lola, at home to keep watch over her studio. Lola freely wanders among her artwork, oen getting splashed by paint, but she (or actually he as Zana recently discovered) always brings a smile to whoever sees him. VUE ON | DESIGN 16 VUENJ.COM

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