- [Interviewer] Austin rounds, hello to you.

- [Austin] Hello.

- Joe Rounds, hello to you.

- Hi.

- On the floor, wonderful arts we have on behalf of Austin, but I'm gonna have your dad talk about you first.

Brag on Austin.

(both laughing) What what's he all about?

- Yeah.

It's easy to brag about him.

He's such a wonderful kid.

And aside from that, just being a fantastic artist.

And he got started when he was very young.

He started sketching when he was about three, four years old and I don't think he ever put a pencil or pen down.

He was constantly carrying around with him.

We went through probably thousands of notepads and art pads.

And you know, he's kind of transitioned between different forms, you know, sometimes he's got him painting a little bit.

He really stuck with sketching and drawing.

And this was his first attempt at digital art.

Yeah.

The scarecrow over there was like the first one I think.

- So in general, Austin, is this digital work?

Are you a digital artist?

- I like to consider myself as both, like I guess traditional and digital, tradigital.

Okay.

So the thing is, it starts off with like a hand drawn sketch on piece of paper.

And then from there I would kind of outline it with like a, I guess sort of like a fine ink pen or something just, I guess one of the kinds you could find at like Michael's.

I would go from there to take a photo of it with my iPad or phone and using my iPad as stylist too.

I'm able to, I guess, put it on this one sort of digital sketch app and give it all the colors, the materials.

- One of the things about his piece or all his pieces, they're all a hundred percent original.

- And some of these, I don't wanna say they're dark, but there's this spooky house, there's kind of a spooky scarecrow.

Is that part of your theme?

- Yeah.

It is kind of part of my theme.

I mean, growing up, I was always fascinated by everything that was, has sort of a creepy dark whimsical.

I'm kind of inspired by people like Tim Burton and some other cartoon shows I grew up watching.

- So in Austin, he can work in a variety of styles.

So the book that he's working on right now just happens to be a Halloween based series of short stories.

And so that's what... - It's the tip of the iceberg.

- So that's what this project is.

So it's more Halloween theme.

It's a little bit darker, but he's also, once he finishes up this project, gonna start working on poetry book.

So it'll be more whimsical, the more lighthearted, but he's able to really transition between a lot of different styles.

- And as a parent, you coached this, you pushed Austin to do what he does well.

- Yeah.

So Austin was diagnosed with autism when he was in the first grade.

And so there was a lot of challenges that Austin and me and us as a family had to work through and make life comfortable for him and give him the support and the advocacy that he needed in school and at home and in public.

And you know, that being said, it's not a point for sympathy.

Austin is, for the most part, fairly independent.

He still lives at home with us, but you know, pretty much anything else he needs to do day to day, he takes care of himself, but the challenges that autism kind of presented with him or presented to him, it also opened up this reservoir of creativity and just a different way of looking at the world and a different way of expressing himself and, - A different way of thinking, I guess.

Yeah.

- Does this make you proud, Joe?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- The art.

- Well, everything, everything that you've been through and everything you've kinda accomplished, you know, the Art Hop really gave us a great platform.

The book is nice.

It's a vehicle for Austin to kind of express himself.

So the author will send us a snippet of a story that he hasn't even written yet.

He'll just say, this is about a scary scarecrow for instance, that guy, and then Austin will develop this story and come up with an idea.

So the book was a nice vehicle for Austin to start working on something directly outta high school that would keep him productive and happy.

And the Art Hop gave us a platform to show off his work.

- Austin, is this your favorite piece?

- [Austin] Yeah, I think, yeah, it is.

- [Interviewer] Yeah, why?

- [Austin] There are like, I guess a lot of things that make it more personal.

- [Joe] The difference between this and the rest of the, this is the one piece that's not in the book.

This is not in the book.

This is not an illustration.

- I see an owl in here.

- Oh yeah.

I could walk you through it if you want.

- Yes, please.

- Okay.

So I guess, imagine if you were all alone in the woods and you see, I guess this one sort of abandoned building or church or whatever it is, and you see a little bit of light inside.

And so when you do step in, the thing is you also have your camera on you or phone or whatever.

- Yes.

We know you would.

- Yeah.

Okay.

So you would go in, but then you see there's all these strange sort of creatures and all these monsters are mad.

You (indistinct) trip on something and it's a loud noise and it's like, you get up and dust yourself off, you look, and it's like they're all staring at you.

Like they noticed you.

- [Interviewer] What inspires you?

- What inspires me to make, I guess, this sort of art that originally derives from all my, I guess, pent up anger and depression when I was in my high school days, because back in those days, I was just really unhappy.

- What also was diagnosed in the first grade, like I said, with autism, it was was a struggle for him.

So it was a lot of years where it was a lot of growing pains.

I was trying to find the right medications, was trying to find the right therapies, trying to get the right support.

You know, a period of time in high school in it was having a lot of difficulties.

- Was art part your life then?

- Part of the, you know, - Wonderful.

- Express himself, if there was moments where he was angry about a situation, or he was frustrated with something, he would go to his room and start sketching these characters out.

- [Interviewer] You keep making art.

- [Austin] Thank you, I will.

- Thank you, Austin, Joe, thank you for your time.

- You're welcome.

- [Narrator] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation.

Helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.