About

Key West-born and Tavernier raised Austin Armstrong has found a way to use his art to honor what feeds him. 

Through this traditional Japanese art form of Gyotaku, Austin has found an artful way to retell the story of each prized catch. Gyotaku prints are exact representations of the actual fish caught — without embellishment or exaggeration. Created by pressing paper onto fish painted with a thin layer of ink, Gyotaku captures lifelike details in the textures and scales of a fish that bring them “alive.”

Austin was selected as one of the Artist in Residence at Dry Tortugas National Park where he refined his technique over the course of a month of isolation on Loggerhead Key. Deeply affected by the fish he encountered in the remote, protected areas of the park, he left with a new mission to showcase, through his Gyotaku work, how rich our ocean could be if we allow it to replenish and recover.