W H Austin
Waller Austin was born on November 4th, 1981 in Durham, North Carolina. He is the 3rd of 4 sons of homemaker, Scott Dabney Austin and pediatric cardiovascular surgeon and professor, Erle Harris Austin III. In 1989 the family moved to Louisville, Kentucky where Waller attended private school. His love for art grew as he regularly visited museums. Though Waller doodled in his notebooks quite often, his natural talent was never pushed to the next level. He was expelled from private school his junior year for bad behavior and graduated from public school the following year. In 2000 he entered college at the University of Louisville with an open mind but without any serious aspirations.
His first attempt at painting took place in 2003, when his artistic abilities were challenged by a girlfriend during an outing at a contemporary art museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. She challenged him to produce a large portrait of herself inspired by the work of famed artist, Chuck Close. He accepted the challenge emulating Close’s use of colorful biomorphic amoeboid shapes within others, within a gridded matrix. The pair broke up weeks later and the painting was never completed.
Austin earned a B.A. in psychology from the University of Louisville in 2004 and began a career as a banker. Although he moved his way up from a clerk to a manager in short order, he was discontent with his work. He moved to another firm in a new role as a financial consultant, but was even more miserable. Austin left the corporate life to start his own real estate investment business but the credit crunch stifled his production.
Around the time Waller was scrambling for ways to earn money, one of his friends stopped by his house to sell him insurance. During the tour of his home, Austin’s friend noticed the unfinished painting in the basement and was so enamored that he commissioned a portrait of himself with his grandfather on the spot. Austin’s first piece, Cordt & Owsley was completed in 2008 after over 300 hours of trial-and-error, process-painting.
This commission was the catalyst for him to pursue his dream to become a professional fine art producing artist. Since 2008 he has sold work nationwide and his paintings hang in both private and corporate collections. Austin is passionate and determined in producing highly stylized works of art. Combining simple marks and basic geometric shapes with precise portraiture gives his work a unique presence that goes beyond the subject.