The Conscious artist is doing inspiring work
While the phrase "Conscious artist" gets thrown around rather often these days, it's always great to come across a musician who's actually committed to creating purposeful art. This is what we've found in the music of Tionna Aura, a uniquely gifted artist who's music feels like it has elements of healing and upliftment all in one. In her song "Space + Time" for example, she speaks directly to listeners at some points, with both affirmations and wise ideology to offer.
Along with her music, the multidimensional artist combines her talents in art and fashion for her custom clothing business @Ireincarnateart. The brand rebels against high fashion expectations, instead repurposing pieces sourced from thrift stores to create new, sustainable looks. We spoke with to Tionna Aura about her art and music below. We also discussed her passion for Epilepsy awareness, and the horrific moment that got her involved. Read up here:
1. Can you tell us a bit about where you're from and your early inspiration in art/music?
So I started making music as early as five years old… And I would just write songs about literally anything… Just singing my own melodies while alone in silence or if songs would come on I would make up my own words to them… And I was just really inspired and interested in making music due to hearing music and see music videos on television growing up. I also would write songs about things that happened to me at school once I got older in middle school and such… I would write songs about crushes that I had or how a girl was mean to me or bullied me at school. So every time I wrote a song it was always about a life situation.
I grew up in a really small town called Lebanon, Indiana and I always felt different and unique from everyone in the artistic way that I literally always wanted to perform and make my own music videos and short movie clips at home. When my relatives would come over, my cousins would join in and play along with me and play roles in little movie scripts and ideas I had as well. We had to use a large camera back in the day to record these clips and put them on VHS! Hahaha... But yeah in my small town I felt like there wasn’t anyone around me that wanted to be on the performance level that I did.
2. Love the message in the video Space & Time. The visual and the lyrics are inspiring for sure. What does Space + Time mean to you? How do you practice it in everyday life?
Thank you so much for the support and love first off, I want to say!! I appreciate it tons! I put a lot of focus and “Space & Time” into making my music! ... I could say so much about space and time… But exactly the way I feel is written clearly in the lyrics. ...
Space and time is about elevating and letting go and moving on and loving again, yourself and everything and everyone around you. And in order to accomplish anything in life all it really takes is the space and time. It takes effort. It takes straight up effort! If you don’t take the space and time to accomplish your goals you will absolutely never get them done! So space and time to me is about literally taking up space and time for yourself to accomplish your needs and next steps for success… Whether that’s healing trauma within yourself, forgiving yourself or others, And in order to accomplish anything in life all it really takes is the space and time. It takes effort. It takes straight up effort! You don’t take the space and time to accomplish your goals you will absolutely never get them done! So space and time to me is about literally taking up space and time for yourself to accomplish your needs and next steps for success.
"Space and time is about elevating and letting go and moving on and loving again, yourself and everything and everyone around you."
Whether that’s healing trauma within yourself, forgiving yourself or others, and reaching out to others to make sure you let them know that they are loved and valuable and special in all aspects of life. If you reach out your intentions with love everywhere you go… You feel so much better and there’s no reason but anything besides elevation to surround you and be a part of who you are and taking you to that next level and next step in life so you can fulfill your true being or what some people like to call purpose.
3. From your canvas and clothing art to your work in Epilepsy awareness, there's a lot of layers to your artistry. Can you expand on these passions of yours a bit?
Yes, my passions all Started as a child I feel like for the most part… And then you just get older and you realize that you can actually go after your passions! I have always liked to paint canvas and make art since I was young, and when shopping with my mother growing up I always wanted to look for the most different clothing and not have the same thing on the rack as everyone else...this is where designing my own clothing came in! I started to realize that I really liked unique and grungy and thrifty type looks! I guess occasionally depending on a situation I May choose to look a little classy or elegant...but I don’t like to look high end. I just don’t. I don’t like to look like I’m wearing expensive designer clothes or labels.… And when I was younger I was completely into that growing up because of the way that society has maneuvered us in school and such. Clothing labels say a lot about your status… So in high school and middle school growing up you know we were taught that if you had certain brands that were more expensive than others that made you cooler or more popular… As I got older, I felt this type of way that honestly like despised that and wanted to rebel against that!
"My passions all Started as a child I feel like for the most part… And then you just get older and you realize that you can actually go after your passions!"
When we were younger in school you were not cool if you were shopping at thrift stores and the Goodwill! Now as an adult I absolutely LOVE thrifting!! It’s my favorite place to shop!!! I dont like to play follow the leader with the trends. I like unique and different for the most part so someone looks at you and they’re like wow where did she get that!? So I take clothes from the thrift store and turn them into something even more unique and different. That’s what I do with my art!
Lastly, I started participating in Epilepsy Awareness after developing brain damage that causes seizures after hitting my head in a car accident about five years ago now. Before that I had no idea truly about what seizures were… I think I had only really just heard the word and maybe heard them described before but I just never seen one and I never envisioned one or knew it was something that would/could happen to me. Due to my concussion and brain damage from the accident I now suffer from regularly having seizures pretty much every 7 to 8 weeks. It is horrific and I absolutely wouldn’t wish it on anyone. And when I go through the Seizures, I usually seize multiple times for 24 hour period and I cannot function… I have to be taken care of by my mother or another relative. Due to this happening to me I really do live every day like it’s my last and don’t let fear hold me back from chasing my own artistic ideas and thoughts! The car accident that damaged me and My brain permanently had so much affect in my life it made me care so much more about the brain and body health. You never know what today or tomorrow brings so you got to THRIVE all the time.
4. You've definitely been consistent with your visuals and content. What should we expect next from Tionna Aura?
As far as Music, I actually have tons of other music that’s already written and recorded… Some of it is not recorded yet, but I am continuously Writing new lyrics and poetry daily. I was actually an animal rights activist who was vegan as well for almost six years and initially that’s what pushed me to start releasing music back in 2016… Because I was so anti-eating animals that I wanted to get the message out and I figured that I could get more people to listen by releasing music instead of just trying to talk to them because not everyone wanted to hear it… But I knew they would listen to my music… So I included lyrics about veganism in my music for a long period of time because that was so important to me. After feeling like I had obviously made my point with songs and visuals in the past, I decided with my last EP I just wanted to go with an uplifting flow and vibrations and not make it necessary to bring up Animals being killed in my lyrics/music... I was just so hard core in animal rights activism that it was my number one focus! I’m so happy to have opened back up now and taking a step back and realizing that I needed to eat animals due to health issues I was having from being significantly deprived of primary minerals and nutrients and now I'm eating animals and animal products again happily and healthily. During those several years having been vegan and I did lose 85 pounds which was major to me… So now I have a different understanding of the way we consume meat and how often and where we get it from.
...Bottom line, all my new music is more open and more vulnerable more real and more me since I am not so focused on convincing others to be vegan! Now I’m really making the music that I really want to and creating art that comes from my soul! This new music will have a variety of types of sounds and vibes! My genre is so open and various, you never know what you’re going to get with Tionna Aura!
