Though Justin White, 29, has loved art for as long as he can remember, painting became more of a form of artistic expression after he became legally blind with keratoconus.
“My eyes have held me back, but I feel like it also prepared me to be on a whole different level,” White, a self-taught painter, told Austin Weekly News. “I paint how I see it, rather than what people want to see.”
Today, White lives on the Near West Side and paints full-time as Justin White Foreva.
“Me being blind, I could never really get a regular job. I stopped driving because of my eyes. I was looking at everything like, ‘What’s something that I can do?’” White said. The answer was painting.
Justin White Foreva painting on Oct. 26, 2026. Credit Maribel Barrera Credit: Maribel Barrera 
Artist Justin White Foreva sits beside one of his portraits during an interview on Oct. 26, 2026. Credit Maribel Barrera Credit: Maribel Barrera 
Artist Justin White Foreva dips his brush into watercolor paint as he works on a piece during an interview on Oct. 26, 2026. Credit Maribel Barrera Credit: Maribel Barrera 
A palette of watercolor paints used by artist Justin White Foreva as he worked on a piece during an interview. Credit: Maribel Barrera
When White’s keratoconus, a progressive eye condition, started degrading at age 13, “I had to learn how to create based off of shapes,” he said. “That’s what helped me get into finding how to be my own leader,” especially since White said his declining eyesight isolated him as a teenager.
“It helped me go through a whole new level and find myself more,” he said. “Before they get to the point of ‘I had to go blind to see this,’ people should sit alone, get themselves isolated, and find out what they like.”
White starts most of his paintings by drawing an outline with pen or marker, then adds paint, most often watercolors. It typically takes White two or three days to complete a piece, and his subject matter varies, but often relates to his own experiences.
“Whatever’s going on in my life, I paint something that symbolizes it,” White said. “I really don’t stick to a specific style. Trying to stick with a style is like trying to make an emotion that you don’t feel.”
The painting White is currently working on includes a self-portrait, two women holding a card, and a lighthouse. The two women represent angels, presenting White with a folded page of positive words. In between the angels and White is a dark swatch that signifies death.
“Growing up, death was scary. I grew up with a lot of stuff like that,” White said.
The lighthouse is partially for Chicago Lighthouse — a nonprofit serving people who are blind or visually impaired — and also because of what the structure represents, “whatever a person uses to get to their goal as their light source.”
White has one of his paintings tattooed on his neck. It’s of a hooded figure next to a wide-eyed animal. The figure is White, and the animal beside him is fashioned after the main character in Crash Bandicoot, a 1996 PlayStation game.
“A lot of my work is about abandonment, feeling alone, or just feeling like you got to go through obstacles sometimes,” White said. “When I was younger, I used to play the game, and my parents and people I was around argued every day. So the video game was my escape.”
White grew up in Englewood, and now lives on the Near West Side. He says a lot about how he grew up and where he lives now informs his art.
“I’m inspired by everything — going to a new place, meeting new people, absorbing different energies and vibes,” White said.
Growing up, White nearly went to an art school, instead of a public school, but “When I got [to the art school] I remember seeing them playing with ribbons and stuff like that, and at the time I didn’t like that,” White said. “Looking back on it, that speaks to me just doing my own thing.”
White got more into painting in high school, “and I just started creating every day,” something that has stuck with him as a full-time artist.
Three years ago, White got scleral lenses, or rigid gas-permeable lenses that give him 20-20 vision.
“When I have my eyes in, it’s more serious,” White said about his painting routine. The scleral lenses “helped me understand how people create too. You become a little bit more OCD with things. When I was just creating, I couldn’t see at all,” which is how White prefers to paint, without the lenses in. He says it makes the artistic process more free and interesting.
“I like to create without [the lenses] and then see what my art looks like after and if I want to add a little bit,” White said. “My process is to work without thinking so hard about it that it messes up the painting.”
When asked what advice he’d give to others who want to be full-time artists, White said, “Just create freely and stop worrying about anybody else’s opinion on it. …When everything’s over with and it’s just you, it’s important for you to be happy with what you do.”
White’s work has been shown in 78 exhibits, including some on the West Side. He is participating in Art Battle Chicago, a live painting competition, on Nov. 13 at SPIN Chicago.
See more of Justin White Foreva’s work at https://justinwhiteforeva.com/works/.