Nathaniel Mary Quinn: The Silver Lining

Paul Gauguin, a French Post-Impressionist artist, once said “I am a great artist and I know it. The reason I am great is because of all the suffering I have done.”

There is no truer case than Nathaniel Mary Quinn, raised in the projects of Chicago, Quinn is no stranger to suffering. However, through the pain and loss, he managed to find inspiration and create moving pieces of artwork that eventually found  its way to famous galleries in London and New York.

Many nights Quinn would wake up to the sounds of gunshots ringing through the streets. Peace was  pleasantry not readily available to Quinn in his childhood. He started creating at a young age, with a little bit of help from his mother, “As a child, my mother allowed me to draw on the walls of our apartment. She would just clean the walls and let me draw again, repeatedly,” he told the Huffington Post. It was these walls that sparked the creative genius inside Quinn, starting from copying comic books to creating masterpieces on canvas.

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Amy Sherald: Painted Dreams

Weeks before graduating with a masters in painting from Maryland Institute College of Art, Amy Sherald was told her heart was only functioning at 18%. But cardiomyopathy (a rare heart disease) didn’t stop her from painting. So she carried on, painting day and night while she waited tables five days a week to pay for treatment. That is, until a routine stop at Rite Aid for art supplies almost turned deadly. What seemed like an ordinary heart flutter caused Sherald to blackout in the aisle only to wake up in a pool of blood underneath her head. But even as she was rushed to John Hopkins Hospital in an ambulance, she held on to her dream. “I’m not going to be afraid, it’s all going to be okay,” she told herself. Even as her heart dropped to 5% functionality, she wanted to paint. But overcoming the heart transplant wasn’t so easy. Due to physical ailments and the depressing side-effects of the medication, she could not paint for a year. “I told my friends, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ It felt stupid and selfish,” she explained in an interview with the Baltimore Sun. But as the effect of the anti-rejection heart transplant meds lessened, Sherald reconnected herself with her six-year old inner child that dreamed of becoming a painter.

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Bill Rauhauser: Motor City Alive

If this brilliant Detroit photographer never laid eyes on the exhibit of the legendary French photographer Henri Cartier- Bresson, photography as we know it would be much different. Bill Rauhauser is known for his classic black-and-white photographs that captured the significant beauty and simple elegance of Detroit throughout several decades. Prior to seeing Cartier-Bresson exhibit, Rauhauser had no idea that his hobby of taking photographs could turn into a full blown career.

His photographs over the decades depict the simple moments in Detroit life. Whether it is a photo of a woman gazing off to the side as she enjoys a cigarette on an outside Detroit plaza while wearing a lavish peacoat and string of pearls, or a photo of pedestrians walking across a street with their heads intently focused on what’s in front of them as a young boy accompanies them with a balloon in his hand, Rauhauser’s photographs show us that,  as a society, we often don’t notice simple moments the world presents to us.

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Action Bronson: Large and In Charge

Cross your straight shooter best friend, a little wild and surreptitious in nature, although nurturing a keen sense of intuition, and someone who is usually spot on, with the outward appearance of a clunky, beardy beast of a man with a sense of humor and imagination. The result? You get out-of-the-box rapper/chef Action Bronson.

"I am a f**king fat white boy. I have to be able to rap. I don't have the look. I don't have the typical slim dude, fancy boy look. That's not me. I have to be able to rap, there's no other choice or I get eaten alive," the outspoken artist said to online music source xxlmag.com.

Truthfully, when you glance over Action Bronson, you ask yourself which genre he fits into. The New Yorker from Flushing Queens is a bit of a misfit in the ultimate sense of the word. He's unapologetic and stubborn with a sense of loyalty and fresh ideas. Born to an Albanian father and Jewish mother, he inspires a new avenue for rappers.

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Kenzo Takada: Introducing Fashion to Japan

Everyone knows that Paris is the fashion capital of the world. The pinnacle of fashion success lies in the heart of France. With that being said, making it to the top is anything but a walk in a beautiful Parisian park. Kenzo Takada is a prime example of the hard work that it takes to make it in the Paris fashion world.

Kenzo, born in Himeji, Japan in 1939, is the first Japanese designer to be recognized by French fashion professionals, while also being considered one of the most influential ready-to-wear designers. Kenzo first became interested in fashion after looking at his sister's magazines. He knew that Japan was no place for a fashion designer, so it wasn't long before Kenzo was on a boat to Paris intending to only stay for six months. However, as soon as he landed in Marseilles he knew this would become his new home.  

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