“The Pain Within,” Austin Lubetkin, 2023

Austin Lubetkin is a software engineer and artist on the autism spectrum based out of Los Angeles, CA. His art is a platform for activism and Lubetkin frequently works with organizations like Arts4All representing artists with disabilities. Lubetkin’s work is inspired by the world of art therapy. As a child on the spectrum, the artist’s mother showed him how to express his emotions through art and since then art has been a source of both therapy and expression.

The artist’s work uses bright vibrant rainbow colors to express life, emotion, and energy. His colors originate from his synesthesia where he see his emotions as colors around him. Many people temporarily experience Synesthesia when they take LSD but a select few people are born with it. These include many famous artists like Edvard Munch who painted “The Scream” and similarly saw his emotions as colors.

Many of the artist’s recent pieces have incorporated mixed media assemblage with unique details to each canvas like crushed glass elements or 3D butterflies.

This piece was a collaboration with Alixandria Hughes. It was part of a series exploring themes of sexual assault. The butterfly is a symbol of human trafficking.