By Regine Malibrian
Photographs by Claire Schaper

The visual arts have always presented an opportunity for creators to tell stories, ask questions and broaden perspectives. In Austin, with its complex history and ever-shifting population, watching the layered and colorful themes emerging from the arts community is like looking through a kaleidoscope as it turns.

Here you’ll find a painter who moonlights as a pediatrician, and artists with no formal training who now make a living off their work. There are international artists who came to this city on a coin toss and now serve as a bridge between Texas and their birthplace. Others chose to leave the city to have new experiences and then returned to their community with new vision. Some have been going to the same place in Austin for years to capture the wholeness of their story before sharing it with the world. Ranging from abstract to realist and across several different media, these visionary artists’ works present a multifaceted view of the lives and experiences of Austinites.