Qualls, Sean

Website: www.seanqualls.com
IG: @sean_qualls

Sean Qualls finds inspiration everywhere. Growing up in the 70's in central New Jersey, his family didn't have much money for art supplies but he made the best of what was available; discarded paper and blank end pages from old books. Sometimes he even used walls, much to his mother's chagrin. Some of his earliest inspirations were the crayons and coloring books his mom would buy for him and his older sister, drawing and handwriting competitions with classmates, and an illustrated bible he received for Christmas in the 2nd grade. 
He moved to Brooklyn to attend art school at Pratt Institute. After only a year and a half, he dropped out but continued to educate himself while working full-time at the Brooklyn Museum.

Sean's books and illustrations often explore history and non-fiction subjects. His fine art focuses on race & identity and the intersection of history & mythology, ultimately examining how we create our own identities or allow them to be scripted for us. Together, his paintings and illustrations reveal simultaneously unique and universal moments that reveal the human spirit.

Sean has also illustrated Emmanuel's Dream (Schneider Award recipient) written by Laurie Ann Thompson, Giant Steps to Change the World written by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee and Before John Was a Jazz Giant (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor) written by Carole Boston Weatherford. A selection of book jackets that Sean has designed are Black and White: Land Labor and Politics of the South by T Thomas Fortune, Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay, Crossing the Stream by Elizabeth Irene Baitie, Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, Amiable with Big Teeth by Claude McKay, and The Poet SLave of Cuba by Margarita Engle. He lives in Brooklyn where you can also find him DJing on occasion.