Anja Flower was born on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year after the holocaust to a small, round insectoid royal named Jarvis.
It was at a point precisely one year after birth that ey began eir intergenerational relationship with the Empress of the Wastes, one Gzz Hkt Na'mmm, a sensual mentorship that finally culminated in em bleeding at the mouth, eyeballs swiveled desperately towards the heavens, and collapsing on the sidewalk next to a rubbish heap.
After a year of abortive apprenticeship to a Yakuza-affiliated tattooist, one Yoshitoshi Motherfucker II, ey attended the Pacific Southwestern Bearded Schoolgirls' Academy department of Disintegrated Design, graduating with a Married Pern of Arts degree in Omnisexual Aesthetics (Theory and Practice).
Since graduation, Mm. Flower has smacked bitches, read too much into Jaques Derrida, had too much fun (and too many partners) at one time, and incurable disease on the day of rest, I'm walking on water in a sea of incest. I've got an image of Jesus embedded in my chest - I can't leave home without my bulletproof vest! Curing myself for the perfect honeymoon, fighting with ey currently resides in the Aokigahara Forest at the base of Mount Fuji, Chuubu region, Honshuu, Japan with eir partner, a tea-kettle inhabited with the spirit of a magical fox named Darling.
Yes, click up there to kontakt the artist.
Anja Flower was raised in a small, flat town by small, flat people. She shocked her family and classmates by coming out at the tender age of 14 as an Interesting Person, though honestly the hijinks in elementary school with the tutu and the teddy bear should have been a sign.
After completing realschule with a good deal of relief but no honors, she further compounded the problem by discovering the Japanese artist Suehiro Maruo, and forever sealed herself off from quaint and unnecessary things like social interaction and unprocessed food.
She lives in a somewhat larger, hillier town now, but that doesn't matter much, because she spends all her time drawing and doesn't go outside to see it. I do suppose, after all, that it can't be helped.
Anja Flower was born at San Francisco General Hospital to a vaguely hippie/beatnik post-Catholic professional writer and a vaguely Earth mother/young liberal Jew community organizer/nonprofit worker who had had a bit much of bicycle messengering and university protests and thought it best to settle down in the 'burbs and hatch some offspring. She was astonishingly cute, and her older brother wasn't so bad-looking either.
Then, there was a divorce and a troubled childhood, complete with the wicked stepmom, morbid depression and hopelessness, friendlessness, intermittent homeschooling, silly oversized pants, pretty okay music (Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM), pretty terrible music (oh god like Linkin Park and Staind, don't remind me), computers, reading, and of course Sonic The Hedgehog, anime, comic books. She used to walk past the offices of a super-whacky professional illustrator on her way to and from school, and she made friends with that illustrator and hung around his offices, annoying him when he was on deadline.
After nearly letting herself be carted off by the wicked stepmom to Santa Fe or somewhere, she was taken in by her omnitalented lawyer/woodworker/mountain climber/outdoorsman/cyclist/printer/etc. uncle and nurse/paralegal/guardian ad lidem/bird, cat, tortoise, frog, lizard etc. caretaker/gardener/orchid keeper/supermom aunt. This entailed living in a three-story fairytale house in Washington State, complete with wood-inlay ceilings, stained glass on the doors, and a great quantity of giant televisions.
She became a deeply serious (but chronically distracted) "furry" artist at this time, and continued to drool like a nerd over Sonic The Hedgehog. She made friends with a tiny, busty otaku who always wore purple and was an amazing, amazing artist. This was also the second time she came out as a damned queer, and the point at which she became obsessed with Masamune Shirow and visual kei bands like Dir en grey and Moi Dix Mois. Alas, she was surrounded by rain and Washingtonian hicks, but at least her bedroom was nice. The cousins weren't half bad neither.
After she returned to California to go live with Mom ('burbs again, whoopee), the uncle took up flying airplanes, crashed the damned thing in a lake and nearly lost his (and his associate's) life. Wicca and Neopaganism made its way into the equation somewhere along the line here, and boy, was she obsessed! High school in Marin County wasn't much better than Washington, but at least it was sunnier, and Anja's taste in comics did improve. She eventually stopped liking Hot Topic and turned to actual goth music, though the taste for visual kei did linger some. This was the peak of the gothic lolita fascination, more or less - it had started back in Washington - and the era of the platform boots. She was looking pretty fucking weird by the end of high school and, alas, was still depressed - and spending all her time on Second Life.
She shortly discovered deathrock and punk, came out as even more queer than previously thought, severely botched an attempt at art school in the city, toyed with her father's Zen Buddhism, became a totally scientistic atheist, almost killed herself (again), and moved back in with Mom. There were a couple aimless years of community college, during which she had to shelve her ambitions of getting tied up and whipped, but this was when she discovered American indie comics and Japanese underground/eroguro manga, so it wasn't all lost. She's currently living in San Francisco with friends and preparing herself for another stab at art school. Wish her luck!
