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Hertz Nazaire was born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti and has been painting and sharing his love for art in Bridgeport, Connecticut for over 20 years. He works mostly with colorful oil pastels on board, often depicting subjects influenced by Haitian culture, history, and life.
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Nazaire is motivated by his life with sickle cell anemia to paint about pain and human limitations of compassion and empathy, which he explores in his art, hoping to provide inspiration. His award-winning images promoting sickle cell awareness have been published around the world in medical books and magazines.
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His sickle cell disease has posed serious life challenges. Job loss due to frequent hospitalizations has made him homeless three times, and he has lived outdoors up to 18 months at a time. These difficult circumstances have led to anxiety and depression, deepening the severe pain of his disease, a scenario all too familiar to his fellow Sickle Cell Warriors. This life experience drives him to create pieces to raise awareness of these grave issues shared within his community.
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He has responded to partial vision loss from his disease with increased purpose in his art. His vision limitation has changed the way he sees the world around him and the way he creates new composition.
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Today he continues to seek new ways to express his art and continues to advocate and speak publicly for the much-needed awareness of sickle cell disease and science education in his community.
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Hertz Nazaire's painting "Ten Redefined" is used on the cover and his painting "Hope" is shown below.
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