Good day, fine people! We hope you're all feeling fabulous, rolling into this quite frigid and snowy second week of February. For the entirety of this unique and shortest month of the year, we celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of African Americans and other people of African lineage during Black History Month. 

The Origin of Black History Month

A historian, Carter G. Woodson, and a well-known minister, Jesse E. Moorland, started an organization in 1915 called the Association for the Study of Negro Life and history, which focused on examining and advocating the successes of Black people. In 1926, to merge with Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass' birthdays, the collective introduced a National Negro History week that motivated communities and schools to form clubs and hold presentations. Fifty years later, in 1976, President Gerald Ford made February the official Black History Month. 

Every year, Black History Month becomes more influential, not only in America but across the globe. Canada and the United Kingdom also recognize February as Black History Month. Theaters and galleries show off African American actors and artists' talents at Movie Festivals, Art Shows, and performances. In honor of this year's Black History Month, we would like to spotlight three of our most engaging artists, Dan Houston, Nikki Chu, Synthia SAINT JAMES, and how their varying cultures helped shape their work.

Dan Houston

Dan Houston was raised in Michigan and demonstrated a strong proclivity towards the arts as a small child. He would take crayons and draw on paper bags and his poor mother's walls! He needed to get that creativity out somehow! After finishing high school in Michigan, Houston moved to New York City for art school. Dan attended the School of Visual Arts and Cooper Union Art School, worked in advertising for a while, and then went back to school to learn more about the business side of art. Following New York.

When observing Houston's abstract expressionist images, we can see his passion for composition and design. As a self-proclaimed romantic, Dan listens to jazz and visualizes the music in color as he paints bold brushstrokes of contrasting hues on paper, canvas, or wood inspired by the tangible and intangible, nature, astronomy, and mythology.

After spending some time in Houston, Texas, for its robust art scene, the artist migrated to Sarasota, Florida, where he still spends his days immersed in music, creating and exhibiting his remarkable pieces. According to Dan Houston, he enjoys exploring and having a good sense of humor to take himself too seriously. 

Nikki Chu

Nikki Chu was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, where she developed a penchant for the arts and fashion. As a teen, Nikki attended the International Academy of Design in her hometown and started a career as a graphic designer, but eventually segued into interior design. 

Nikki developed and cultivated her own line of home decor furnishings including, wall art. Being driven, she felt it was time to leave Toronto's comforts and move to Los Angeles' much larger market. It was here that Chu's Aspire TV show Unpacked catapulted, and celebrities like Tyra Banks, Nick Cannon, Lisa Leslie, and Gabrielle Union sought her design skills to build their personalized dwellings. Over this last year, to share her knowledge, Nikki and a fellow interior designer developed an online interior design course that teaches from a professional business perspective. 

Being of both Jamaican and British heritage, Chu looks to her roots and the world in places like Indonesia, Ghana, Africa, and India for inspiration to create her pieces. Referencing tribal and ethnic patterns and people of color while interweaving modern lines for a global yet relatable aesthetic, as seen in many of her beautifully executed accent pieces and wall decor.

Synthia SAINT JAMES

Synthia SAINT JAMES is that inimitable person who does not allow the negativity of any kind to derail her avidity for life and passion for her craft. As a small child, she yearned to be an artist without influence or urging from an adult. This internal force has made SAINT JAMES a self-taught, unwavering success in the multi-cultural arts.

For some time in the 1960s and 70s, Synthia worked in the corporate world using only her spare time to paint until she transitioned to a full-time artist. In the 1980s, Synthia began painting in her current style featuring brightly colored faceless characters representative of various ethnicities and cultures. 

Synthia attributes her decades-long career of painting, doing commission works, and authoring/illustrating dozens of books to trusting in her own voice, living a clean life devoid of toxins, and eating well. Continual research and gaining knowledge has also increased the profound depth and scope of her vibrant artwork, as seen in images like Aja Yoruba Goddess of Healing. 

As a little homework assignment, ask yourself the next time you buy art, read a book, see someone perform, who that person is, and what challenges or obstacles they had to traverse to get their contributions noticed?