Robbie Austin’s work is rooted in collaboration—with materials, memory, and moment. Using objects like field books, maps, postcards, ledgers, tablecloths, and vintage band t-shirts, he treats each surface as a partner in storytelling, letting their inherent traces of use and history guide him. “Locking into materials is a gift,” he says. “They already carry a voice. I just try and channel what the divine provides. I’m just the filter.” Inspired by Jenny Holzer’s truism “All things are delicately interconnected,” Robbie explores connections—between place and pattern, past and present, material and memory. Since 2020, he has pursued the poetic possibilities of line, color, and form, sparked by discovering stormproof field books after a hurricane. “The paper was unlike anything I’d ever seen,” he recalls. “Resin-infused, coded with mysterious marks—property lines, measurements, tree growth. These became springboards for visual improvisation.” Though trained in California (BFA, CalArts; MFA, UCLA), Robbie has lived, worked, taught, and created art within two square miles of Lake Charles, Louisiana, for most of his life. He resides in a 115-year-old home near the high school where he has taught for over two decades. Artist, teacher, father, and husband—though in varying order—Robbie draws inspiration from ordinary rituals and the resilience of his hometown, continually seeking the positive and the possible.