Austin Francis

I grew up watching my grandmother and mom paint elaborate landscapes, animals, and all sorts of magical things. I always loved watching a world come to life each time their paint brush or airbrush hit the canvas. Growing up, I would sit at the computer and make colorful circles on Microsoft Paint pretending to be like my mom or grandmother. Microsoft Paint is a graphics program that has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows and used for simple image manipulation. As an adult, I revisited this program one night when I couldn’t sleep and started clicking away, discovering how to make digital “brush strokes”. It was difficult and sometimes and it took quite a few tries to get the lines or shapes I wanted. But that was the beauty of Microsoft Paint, I could undo my mistake with ease and keep trying. The other amazing aspect was the meditative aspect of clicking a mouse over 1000 times and creating a landscape. Each painting helped put my anxiety or depression in check. Microsoft Paint has been an amazing outlet for my art, not only because it’s free material, but because I can do it anywhere and anytime.