His work imparted to her the potential for illustration to hold social messages, leading her to study at the Ontario College of Art, from which she graduated in 1978.
[4] Kunz states that studying the works of British artists like Sue Coe, Richard Mills and Ian Pollock helped her to understand that illustration could be used to personally express "a strong political or social viewpoint."
[3] In particular, she caught the attention of American art director Fred Woodward when he commissioned an illustration of Ray Charles for Westward magazine in 1982.
Her depiction of Charles "with piano keys for teeth" exceeded Woodward's expectations and prompted their working relationship through his transitions to Texas Monthly, Regardie's, and Rolling Stone.
For Woodward, Kunz was an obvious choice to be one of the two artists illustrating for his back-of-the-magazine series called "The History of Rock and Roll," which ran from 1988 to 1990.
[5][2] Kunz has lived in London, New York City and Toronto, contributing to magazines and working for design firms, book publishers and advertising agencies in Germany, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Canada, South Africa, Holland, Portugal, France and England.
[6] Her paintings and sculptures have been featured in galleries abroad, including the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts and the Teatrio Cultural Association in Rome, Italy.
[13] On 5 April 2018, Canada Post celebrated Kunz and four other prolific Canadian illustrators by issuing a stamp series featuring their works.
In 2021, Kunz discussed her "portraits of unsung women and her equally feminist but far more fantastical vision of art history" in The New Yorker Magazine.
[6][8] Kunz points to the Northern Renaissance works of Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden as an influence for her illustration style.
Milton Glaser, the American graphic designer who invented the I Love New York logo, said that Kunz is "almost Flemish in her sense of detail and finish.
[26][3] In the early 2000s, Kunz repeatedly expressed her concern that publications were becoming more focused on celebrity culture and commercial advertisements than on intellectual and conceptual subject matter.
[26] In addition to receiving more celebrity portrait commissions than serious ones, U.S. military officials periodically visited her website following her April 2003 cover illustration of George W. Bush as an oil sheik for The American Prospect.