Born in San Diego, California, Kiera Howell has been drawn to the language of art for as long as she can remember. Her practice is rooted in figurative painting, increasingly informed by abstraction, color, shape, and form. She is currently pursuing the study of Art History and Studio Art, bringing together a reverence for art’s history with an evolving contemporary perspective.

At the center of my practice is an interest in the unseen connections between human experience, symbolism, beauty, and the natural world. Inspired by the writings of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung regarding the subconscious, her paintings explore the ways visual language can transcend the individual—how a gesture, pattern, color, or symbol can evoke something deeply familiar while remaining open to personal interpretation.

Howell approaches art as both a form of inquiry and connection. Her work seeks to move beyond surface beauty, inviting the viewer into a more intuitive and contemplative experience—one where the personal can intersect with something larger and more universal. What does it mean for something to be beautiful? Where does beauty come from?

For Howell, art is not merely an object to be observed. It is a means of connection: to oneself, to others, and to the shared consciousness that exists beneath our individual experiences.

Her work exists within that space between the recognizable and the mysterious, where beauty becomes a doorway to something deeper.