Jared Augustin

Jared has been practicing visual art more earnestly since 2023, though he has maintained a lifelong interest in creative endeavors.

His main discipline is painting. He primarily takes inspiration from music, biblical imagery and teachings, and photography books. Often working with oil paint and pastel, he shares confused, far-too-strung-together ideas, stirring affects, and imaginative imagery. There is, for Jared—as for many creatives—a tireless thrum: an affliction, a burden, a joy to attempt to adequately externalize the internal landscape. And with this, a continual encounter with that strange medley of melancholy and motivation when, in the act of externalizing, something invariably gets lost.

In his work, it is Jared's supreme desire* to share with others something entirely sincere.

Through expressive figuration, vibrant colours and contrasts, and intuitive mark-making, he attempts to explore themes of love, faith, memory, relationships, hope, and the terrible challenge of possessing a human heart.

His process is a call and response, a continual negotiation. He is drawn to using unorthodox materials as canvas—concrete, drywall, plywood, whatever happens to be around the house. More often than not, Jared will begin a new canvas with no particular image in mind, allowing it to emerge through the reactions taking place between medium, brushstroke, and surface. He tends to work on multiple canvases at once and may paint over a finished work several times, permitting new images to arise from what was previously thought complete.

Professionally, with guidance from the Queen's Cultural Studies Department, Jared completed a Master of Arts in Cultural Studies, with a research focus on critical prison studies and restorative justice. This education has led him to support and counsel youth and their families in the Hastings County area who have come into contact with police or the justice system.

It is Jared's hope to continue learning and growing in his artistic practice and to share that work with others. Commissions and gallery inquiries are always welcome.

*The stated desire is subject to change.