A Painting about Trauma

March 25, 2026 Austin Howlett

Hi friends, I hope you all have been well. I just wanted to share a little update on a painting that ive been working on for the last few months. Once I had finished my chemo treatments in late September of last year I had the strong urge to create a painting in response to my entire cancer experience. I wanted it to be a self-portrait that expressed the expanse of emotions that i felt during the entire process, hopelessness, fear, paint, loneliness, optimism, hope ect.

It honestly felt really good to sort of take back some agency over myself and the experience by painting about it. I took many many photo references in my closed with a light taped to my chest for an intense and dramatic light source. I wanted the light to be right where the cancer started which was the middle of my sternum.

There will be much more symbolism in this painting to explain once it is done. But for now I wanted to give you an update since I havent posted in a bit. Let me know what you think so far :)

Sneak Preview | New Double Exposure Portrait

July 13, 2023 Austin Howlett

For those of you who don’t follow me on social media, my current work in progress is an incredibly intricate double exposure portrait of my older sister.

Newest Terra Human | "Through the Leaves"

January 29, 2021 Austin Howlett

Hi everyone, could you do me a favor? Please read my full description for this painting below. I hope that this painting can communicate with you as it has communicated with me during its creation process. Honestly I don't think I have ever put this much thought into a single painting before so I really hope that you can listen to what I have to say and process it as you view the piece.

This painting shows a trapped man. Ever since he was born into the color of his skin he has only been seen in this way. We choose see him through the leaves, broken, unfinished, and most of all unlike us. We only see him in these leaves as a way to control him rather than trying to understand him. As a society we refuse to see this person and people who look like him in a different light and recognize that all people are complex and multifaceted individuals. Like all of us this man is striving to find success and meaning in his life but he lives in a world that feels the need to put him into a specific box. Even though he is a kind, sensitive and compassionate individual his intent is assumed to be malicious and selfish and so everyday he feels the need be extra accommodating to those who are threatened by him. As he looks out through the leaves he finds a world that is fearful of him and ready to challenge his every move due to the color of his skin rather than the content of his character. He sees a world that is ripe with opportunity for others but these opportunities have conditions and requirements that shut him out.

This man is looking us straight in the eyes and asking us to be better. He is asking to be set free from these leaves so that he can live a life untethered from where we put him.