Illustrator Abbey Lossing grew up in the midwest with drawing as a favorite pastime and influence from a grandmother who was a portrait painter. By high school, she was starting to take drawing seriously, and that led to focused college studies in illustration. Always feeling drawn to the freelance way of life, she set herself up for success by first paving the road with two years of corporate “real job” work before setting out on her own. Here, she shares how she gained her professional footing.

Fine artist and designer, Daniel Asham, grew up in Miami in the mirror image of the house across the street. After graduating from the Cooper Union, back in Miami he co-founded the artist-run gallery space ‘The House’. An invitation to collaborate with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company led to global adventures in stage design, and in 2007, in order to expand his explorations of spatial manipulation, he formed Snarkitecture, a multidisciplinary design practice with partner Alex Mustonen. 

Entrepreneur and internet pioneer, Jen Bekman, tells the story of how she founded 20x200 with a mission of making art collecting accessible to everyone. On the leading edge of ecommerce, 20x200 achieved enormous initial success and grew too quickly. Jen tells her powerful story of adapting her business on-the-fly as the internet landscape shifted dramatically under her feet—her perseverance fed by a deep belief that living with art is good for you, and the creation of art itself is an act of bravery. Bravo!