DEARBORN – Patricia Austin, 89, of Dearborn, passed away peacefully on August 3, 2026, in the presence of family members.

Born in Detroit to Helene Guzik and Walter Musial, she became a noted artist and poet in the Pacific Northwest, winning awards and having many gallery shows in both Anchorage, Alaska and later, in Port Townsend, Washington. Her art work, both prints and water colors, are in many public and private collections and she was exhibited widely, including in Japan and Norway and at the Smithsonian Museum.

Graduating from Chadsey High School in Detroit, she received a Ford Fund scholarship and attended the University of Michigan, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in English. She earned a second BFA in art from the University of Washington and Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Alaska, where she also taught.

Her prints and drawings ran the gamut from abstract to more representational, influenced by everything from Alaska’s sky and mountains to the veining in marble, including in the Vatican.

From 1978, one of the “marble papers” was more local. It featured the art along with a brief accompanying memory of a childhood visit to the Scott Fountain on Belle Isle.

Sometimes her art would include poetry or quotes in the design.

While in Anchorage, Austin also did art for a local theater group, a music festival and a hospital as well as the lobby mural in a community center.

In 1964, after teaching art in Shelby, Michigan for four years, she moved with her husband, Alan Austin, to Anchorage where she taught English, reading and art for three years. She received numerous awards in juried exhibitions beginning in 1967 and taught at Anchorage Community College beginning in 1972.

In 1981, she was commissioned to create the Governor’s Award for the Arts by the Alaska State Council for the Arts and she received the prestigious Artist’s Fellowship from the council in 1985. During that time, she was also a board member for the Northwest Print Council.

After a brief stint in Salem, Oregon, she and her husband moved to Port Townsend, Washington. She had several shows there and was a member of the Quimper Arts community.

In 2014, she moved back to Dearborn to be closer to family and was a resident of Allegria Village senior community, the former Henry Ford Village.

She is survived by her sisters Donna Abraham, of Dearborn Heights, and Helen Glaszek, of Allen Park; her brother Robert (Anne) Musial, of Grosse Pointe Woods, and numerous nieces, nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband Alan Austin, her parents Helene Lisiewski and Walter Musial and sister Joelene Igielski. A private memorial is being planned.