Painter Arielle Austin finds—and shares—a spiritual connection through her work.
Story by Kara E. Henderson
Arielle Austin found her path to achieving tranquility through painting. A relatively new resident of the capital city, she is also somewhat new to painting, having completed her first round of solo work in 2014. Her vibrant work conveys an intricate and complex relationship between beauty and deeprooted emotions, a nod to an artistic maturity. The Los Angeles native has no doubt divine intervention guided her path.
“I was talking to a friend on the phone about what graduate schools she was applying to and when she said Texas, something in me—the Holy Spirit—said, ‘You’re going to Texas,’ ” Austin says.
With a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from California State University, Northridge, she never envisioned art would be her calling. But after taking some painting classes as an undergrad, she fell in love. After graduation, Austin pursued a corporate career in graphic design, but found herself in a “deeper depression.” It was in art that she found salvation.
By Tyeschea West 
By Tyeschea West
Painting remains Austin’s “moment to meet with God, to pray without words, to let my intuitive movements guide me.” She describes her work as a “visual diary or prayer-journal entries.”
Through her paintings, she hopes others feel a sense of belonging or connection.
“My hope is that anyone can find a piece of themselves in what I create,” Austin says. “And to get even a glimpse of God in company with the image of one’s self that’s seen, known, understood and loved, that would mean everything.”
“It’s a practice in staying present while resolving abstract plays on color, composition and texture. In experimenting with this process, using paper, modeling paste and layers of color, my work compels the viewer to take a closer look, to become intimate with the art, resembling our very own human nature and desire to be fully seen and known and appreciated from afar and even more so once our layers have been examined.” – Arielle Austin