Michelle Austen spent many years working in the medical field, but today, she’s a full-time artist, the author of a book, and an art teacher.
As a child, Austen was never in one place for too long. Her family is originally from the Maritimes, but Austen was born in Toronto and moved throughout Ontario and Quebec a few times. At age 11, she settled in Calgary, where she has been ever since.
Throughout her childhood and youth, Austen actively participated in all forms of creative artistry. Despite her love of art, she pursued a career in the healthcare industry.
“Nobody told me I could go to art school,” Austen says. “I mean, I was young, and I was good in math, and I was always creative, so they told me to do something medical.”
Austen attended SAIT in Calgary, earning a diploma in medical lab technology. After graduation, she worked at different places, including The Holy Cross and the Foothills Hospital, where she stayed for about 14 years.
During her late thirties, after taking some time away from work to raise her two kids, Austen got re-certified and worked part-time as a medical lab technologist.
Meanwhile, she also taught various classes, including yoga, aquafit and art, which helped support her family.
She was thankful for the steady income and benefits that her medical job brought, but she felt as if something was missing.
“It didn’t feed my soul like art did,” Austen says.
The process was slow-moving, but after receiving the news that she had been let go from her part-time medical lab job, she decided to take a leap of faith and dedicate herself to painting and teaching art full-time.
At first, her art classes were for kids who came to her backyard studio to learn. Later, as her former art teacher, Betty MacDonald, retired, she also took on her adult students.
Piper Sawatsky, a past student of Austen’s and current social media assistant, is thankful for her time in Austen’s art classes. Sawatsky is in her last year of interior design at Mount Royal University.
“She was really encouraging,” Sawatsky says. “Teaching the artistic eye, I think, was really helpful and definitely gave me a leg up to get into the program I’m in today.”
Aside from teaching, Austen recently published her first book, Adventures of Wilde—A Sense of Wonder, which she wrote and illustrated in 2018.
Writing the book was a four-year endeavor.
The story, which features the adventures of a curious young bear who likes exploring and making friends, drew inspiration from a painting Austen completed and donated to Canadian Parks and Wilderness.
She hopes to continue by turning the story into a series and has already begun writing her next book.
“She has an amazing mind. She’s always coming up with new ideas,” says Danielle Paetz, longtime friend and Austen’s marketing assistant.
Austen’s art often involves celebrating nature’s beauty in the world around her.
“The way the light hits something sometimes will strike me,” Austen says.
But her art also deals with a sense of joy and the struggles that she has known throughout her life.
“Art is one of the most humbling things in the world,” Austen says.
In class, she encourages her students to show what is in them by letting go through their art the way she does.
“I really think creativity is in you, and it’s just having the courage to let it out. To express it,” Austen says.
Austen is deeply grateful for the support she has received from her community and for the work she can do. She considers it a great privilege that people choose to invest in her art and is thankful for her decision to take the leap and dedicate herself to her true passion.
“I’m grateful for that every single day,” says Austen.