RAW Art Paints: Rely Wharry Builds a Business Rooted in Art, Mental Health and Generational Change
There’s a lot of meaning packed into the name of Remy Wharry’s business, which sells acrylic paints with colors like Prussian Blue and Red Ochre.
On the surface, RAW Art Paints bears her initials.
Going a little deeper, RAW stands for reliable, advocacy, and wellness.
Reliability, of course, is a given for any successful business, while the other two emphases reflect Wharry’s status as a Black woman entrepreneur and psychiatric nurse.
Wharry, 33, is an artist in her own right — with murals and commissions among her specialties — so the advocacy piece comes in highlighting other artists from underrepresented groups. With her mental health background, Wharry also promotes the therapeutic aspects of art as the wellness pillar.
A third layer of RAW Art Paints goes to Wharry channeling the aspirations of women forebearers and in setting an example for her 6-year-old daughter, Sage.
Through her business, Wharry wants to break the “generational roadblock” of women in her family who eschewed entrepreneurism because they thought a 9-to-5 job was the only way to pay bills and raise a family.
“And hopefully my daughter can see what I'm doing, and she can follow in those footsteps,” Wharry said, “recognizing that you don't have to kind of fit inside this box — you can still chase those creative passions.”
Wharry established the online business in 2023 and had a brick-and-mortar space in Kansas City’s Zhou B Art Center, 1801 E. 18th St., for nearly two years before moving the operation to her home in December 2025. She also hosts paint parties.
Her plan is to find a storefront space where she can sell her art and her paint. She also wants to get her paint into other retail stores.
Wharry grew up in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast neighborhood and graduated from Lincoln College Preparatory Academy. She went on to earn nursing and education degrees in pursuing a conventional career, when all the while she knew art was her passion.
Studying white male classic painters offered no role models, nor did she find any among the guest speakers brought to her school.
So beyond setting an example for Sage, Wharry said, “I feel like being that role model to open the door for a lot of other young girls that look like me to let them know that … you can make money from art. Yes, you can have multiple streams of income, break that cycle, and maybe even become a millionaire for your family one day.”
She has donated time and money to nonprofits, such as The Village KC, and to Southeast High School to help inspire the next generation of minority artists.
As an artist, Wharry knew that revenue waxes and wanes. In looking for a steady stream of income, she took inspiration for RAW Art Paints from hair and lashes stylists. They all seemed to have a product to complement their service.
Wharry contracts out for her formula and branding.
She turned to AltCap in 2024 for an ARTcap loan to pay for a second shipment of her product. Wharry paid for the first batch out of her own pocket.
The second shipment included 1,000 sixpacks of 2-ounce tubes and 3,000 individual 4-ounce tubes, allowing her to broaden her inventory and experiment with different distribution methods without worrying about running out of product.
The loan process was smooth, Wharry said, and the infusion of capital was critical in getting her into her second year of business and to respond to customer demand.
“Because a lot of the people who bought the first round were like, ‘Oh, we love the paint. We just want some more color options. We want some packages, so that we can gift it to other people,” Wharry said. “So it really answered the call for a lot of my clients and people that had already been buying my paints.”
