Austin Kowal (born October 19, 1985) is an American artist and entrepreneur located in

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Ba ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. At age 16, Kowal began designing apparel and jewelry and by the time he was 19 years old, he had taught himself

screen printing Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen in a "flood stroke ...

and had founded Clothesline Creative, a clothing company based in

. Kowal's company has provided design and printing services to businesses throughout Florida and the United States and frequently has made

in-kind donation Gifts in kind, also referred to as in-kind donations, is a kind of charitable giving in which, instead of giving money to buy needed goods and services, the goods and services themselves are given. Gifts in kind are distinguished from gifts of ca ...

s to local charities and grassroots initiatives in the Sarasota community. Kowal also is head of the "Going Vertical" division of the

Sarasota Chalk Festival Sarasota Chalk Festival is an American cultural event of public art that celebrates a performing art form of pavement art also known as Italy, Italian street painting. It was founded in Sarasota, Florida by Denise Kowal. During the festival art ...

to which artists are invited from all over the world in order to paint murals during the annual festival, and he regularly is associated with the special events related to the festival.

References

1985 births Living people American graffiti artists {{US-painter-1980s-stub