Bio

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Quána Madison (she/her/hers) is a multi-disciplinary artist, fashion designer of wearable art, wellbeing advocate, workshop facilitator, model/on-camera actor, and artist-philanthropist. 

Expressive arts revived her soul after enduring cancer previvor treatments and developing disruptive life-changing chronic illnesses. She believes art nourishes well-being. 

In 2015, Quána exhibited early cancer warning symptoms during her Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado Boulder. After becoming severely ill, genetic testing revealed she had the BRCA1, ATM, and NBN genetic mutations. Her prior health history of precancerous growths, suspicious symptoms, and genetic predisposition made her high risk of developing aggressive forms of breast, ovarian and uterine cancers. 

In 2016, she had an emergency hysterectomy, oophorectomy, and double mastectomies. She underwent multiple breast reconstruction procedures and experienced necrosis of her remaining breasts. 3 months after surgical treatments, she barely survived a spontaneous vaginal cuff dehiscence and evisceration. While bleeding out to nearly to death from this rare surgical complication, Quána had an extraordinary out-of-body near-death experience. The experience was transformative and restored her faith in the sacredness of life.

By January 2017, she was diagnosed with surgical menopause, fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease, chronic pain syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis, endocrine system problems, peripheral neuropathy. depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Doctors informed Quána that her life expectancy was shortened due to her complex health landscape. The compounding impact of her incurable chronic illnesses caused her life to completely fall apart. In April 2017, she discontinued her Ph.D. due to debilitating health reasons. This marked the beginning of her post-traumatic growth journey. In recent years, she has undergone multiple surgeries, and continues to navigate her complex health landscape. In 2025, Quána experienced life-threatening complications again. But thankfully the incredible research-based doctors, medical specialists and nurses of University of Colorado Hospital at the Anschutz Medical Campus, saved her life. 

Throughout Quána’s health adventures, creative expression combined with wellness practices nourishes her resiliency and positive attitude. She loves creating gestural art, abstract expressionist paintings, mixed media art and digital art. Starting in 2022, Quána began hand-painting used clothing & accessories as a way to promote sustainability in the fashion industry. In 2025 she began designing ready-to-wear clothing featuring her artwork, in addition to hand-painted clothing.

Quána strives to inspire, educate, empower and uplift people through her art, creative services and advocacy. She is passionate about promoting inner peace, social-emotional wellbeing and mental health. She collaborates with organizations and supports social causes that promote a better world. Quána facilitates community arts engagement with a variety of organizations. She is a member of the Community Leadership Council for the National Pain Advocacy Center (a non-profit advocacy organization working to change the mindsets and policies that shape the care people with pain receive). As a Lived Experience Expert, she has collaborated with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) HEAL Initiative on the Strategic Planning subcommittee and webinar on Health Equity and Pain Across the Life Course, the Workshop on Advancing Equity in Pain Management, the HEAL Connections Lived Experience Panel and the Ambassador/Disseminator Strategy. She participated in the joint NIH and IMI-Pain Care INTEGRATE-Pain Delphi process to develop core research domains for acute, chronic, acute-to-chronic translation, and episodic pain. Quána is a Patient partner for the 2025 North American Pain School (NAPS) in Montebello, Quebec, Canada, in collaboration with the Quebec Pain Research Network (QPRN). She also collaborates frequently with the Denver Art Musueum, the Center on Colfax - LGBTQ Colorado, Envision: You ( a non-profit mental health education and advocacy organization dedicated to supporting the behavioral health needs of the LGBTQ+ community), Colorado Artists in Recovery (a non-profit that nurtures the creative spirit of people in recovery from substance misuse and mental health disorders), Catholic Charities, Habitat for Humanity and the Denver Botanic Gardens. Additionally, she is a part-time museum professional at the Clyfford Still Museum. 

Quána considers herself a cosmopolitan global community member. She is a New Yorker who served as a public school teacher in Brooklyn, NY. She is a former expatriate who lived and worked in Shanghai, China. A graduate of Colorado College and New York University, Quána now resides in Denver, Colorado with her husband Zach and their cats.

Social Media:

Email: quana@quanamadison.com 

Artist website: www.quanamadison.com

Artist’s Wearable Art Boutique: https://quanamadison.myshopify.com/

Instagram: @quana.madison | TikTok: @iamquanamadison 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quanamadison/

Youtube: @iamquanamadison | Facebook: @quanamadisonllc 

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/quanamadison

*Art Representation by Artlifting (See Quána's Available Art)  

*Model & On-Camera Representation by Wilhelmina Denver