At the age of eight, Anou discovered a passion for drawing and began her artistic education in New York at the MOMA art school. Then, at ten, she attended art classes, and experimented with various techniques at the Art Students League of New York. In the summers, she went to the William Schultz art school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts to study oil and pastel painting.

While studying at Bennington College, the Alma Mater of Helen Frankenthaler, Anou focused on painting and French Literature. Standing out from her peers, she pursued representational painting and eventually trained in Paris under a distinguished artist, discovering the art of color schemes using just three primary colors. Drawing inspiration from the Symbolism and Van Gogh exhibitions in Paris, she aspired to sharpen her talents. Back at Bennington, she experimented with symbolic paintings but faced an emotional setback when a classmate defaced her work. By exploring diverse subjects like still life and landscapes, she juggled art and academics until a serious car accident threw her off course.

After overcoming injuries, she dived deeper into art. Midterm feedback pushed her to find her style. Using her left hand, she focused on portraits and later painted a self-portrait with her right hand. Displaying these in the final exam show, she passed and graduated.

Returning to NYC, she continued learning at the Art Students League, studying figurative painting and anatomy. Struggling to find gallery representation, she turned to studying architecture at City College. In 1989, after someone threw a rock through her car window, she moved to Santa Fe to pursue a master's degree in architecture at UNM while working part-time at architecture firms. Laid off in 1993, she started her own drafting business.

In 1996, after getting her master's degree, she tailored her design business to provide CAD and later 3D CAD services to architects. The housing market crash in 2009 decimated her work. For a decade, she couldn't find any job in architecture or elsewhere.

Meanwhile, with her mother's financial help, she handled the crisis by taking art classes at Santa Fe Community College. Over the course of the next 15 years, she gained degrees in fine arts and interior design. She learned different art forms such as printmaking, watercolor, collage, acrylics, oils, and assemblage. Her painting style changed from realism to nonrepresentational or a mix of abstract and realistic. By drawing inspiration from Beethoven's music and employing a restricted color scheme, she merges her various talents. She centers her art on utilizing various techniques to investigate compositions, colors, gestures, and subjects.