Conversations with Aaron Quinn

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Quinn.

Hi Aaron, we’re so excited to have you on the platform. Before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
My journey has been this funky stutter step full of jaw-dropping collapses and remarkable relationships that saved me from drowning in my own mistakes. I grew up in a small town called Bean Station, TN, and had my first job picking up rocks on an ex-NFL QB’s farm. Little did I know that would be the high point of my life for a good while.

From Bean Station to Cleveland to Chattanooga, I worked everywhere, from a local burger joint called Dairy King (not Queen) to Panera Bread to a local coffee shop in Chattanooga called The Camp House. Along the way, I dropped out of college twice and got fired from the same number of jobs. I was one interview rejection away from being homeless. By age 30, I never thought I would amount to anything.

How can a 30-year-old twice college dropout with two firings on their resume amount to anything? But the funky nature of life flipped the script, and now I am running an independent publishing company called Walnut Street Publishing, where we are reimagining publishing as a community and telling stories through all mediums of art. All these mistakes, mishaps, and collapses turned into this beautiful mosh pit of community and art.

We all face challenges, but would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Things have definitely not been smooth. My greatest obstacle has always been myself. For a long time, I approached everything with a poverty mentality. That mentality made me want to horde attention, resources, and time.

It also made me act out of fear instead of intuition. People and community are the most important part of life and business. My poverty mindset made me devalue others and try to rush to an outcome. I was fortunate to have the right people surround me who taught me how to listen, slow down, and channel my passion into relationships rather than gain.

Thanks. What else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
First, I have my personal pieces, which include acrylic abstracts, southern abstract poetry, and YAF and Southern novels. For my writings, I love words and language and my poetry is known both for the creative exploration of rhythm and unique metaphors to express the deconstructive nature of life.

The method of distillation to create abstract poetry is also found in my paintings, where a combination of vivid color choices and movement invites the viewer into a moment of exploration and uncertainty. Essentially, my art is meant to be a mosh pit of rad moments and perpetual passion. I do not like thinking about how my art is set apart from others. I think of art as a mosaic that consists of the individual investing in the universal.

That universal feeds into the second front. Through running Walnut Street Publishing, I create community and accessible space for other artists. I am a natural cheerleader. I wake up energized to cheer others on. That passion fuels the mission behind our publishing company and what we are doing in Chattanooga.

What changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
For Walnut Street Publishing, we want to stray away from focusing on where our industry will be in 5-10 years. We try our best to listen to the immediate needs of artists and our community and build our mission around those needs.

If we are to stay true to the mission of listening to our community’s current needs and creating a solution and space for those needs, then thinking 5-10 years ahead devalues the current needs and commoditizes the artists rather than values them as important singularity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://walnutstreetpublishing.com/ and https://www.musinghobbit.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/walnutstreetpublishing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walnutstreetpublishing/