Thoughts Internal

Images of people convey the complicated life of thoughts that are individual but bring us together as people who strive to understand others of different backgrounds and experiences. We can never truly understand the experiences and feelings of others, but through my art I look to get the viewer to understand what another might think or believe. We all have the desire to be purposeful, fulfilled and happy in our individual lives but we should look to enrich our lives by listening to others and striving to understand other perspectives. 

From The Realm of Dust

Across painting, printmaking, sculpture, video, mosaic, and mixed media works ranging from tiny and intimate objects to monumental panels, DeVane’s creative sensibilities leave no stone unturned in her quest to communicate her vision of the painful and troubled specificities of black American history side by side with her embrace of a pan-spiritual relationship to the divine.

All is Bright

ALL IS BRIGHT is an 84,000-word literary novel that takes place in Christmas, Georgia—a misleading name, like something out of a Hallmark movie, when it’s really just another dying town in the rural south, one plagued by poverty and corrupt politics and a tyrannical strain of Christianity that runs deep, especially in the Ashgrove family. Elliott Ashgrove is a child prodigy and preacher’s kid whose talent for the piano borders on mystical—whenever he hears a song, he can immediately play it back both forwards and backwards.

Isolation Games

At the dawn of 2020, universal freedoms were renegotiated as the world receded into quarantine. Lifestyles were fraught with apprehension surrounding social implications of an unapologetic threat among our collective future. We promptly discovered detachment drastically shifts routine and tests psychology. Humanity's fragile inter-connectedness amid a surreal stillness became a germane allegory of solidarity and perseverance in an uncertain world. 

A Promising Future Mural (2020)

This past summer, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of eight high school youth and I created a social-distanced mural in West Baltimore called "A Promising Future," a name picked by the youth. Each of them produced 24" black and white paintings on wood panels to answer one essential question, "what does it take to help a community thrive?" Two local artists and I installed their wood panels on an outdoor surface, framing a centerpiece I designed and painted on site. The most important thing about the mural is that Black people made it for a predominately Black community.

Growing Things I

This body of work was started in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and continues each spring and summer. I look around me and focus on small, hopeful things, like tomato plants and sunflowers started from seed for the gardens. Watching them grow is thrilling. Painting them allowed me to slow down and capture special moments often over looked. Some plants seemed to have figurative qualities. Continuing to observe the living things around me is a meaningful meditation and reminder that time continues. 

Mirkwood Mural

Mirkwood Mural is a public art space for community artists to enrich the landscape of Baltimore. During the COVID-19 pandemic and uprisings against police brutality, I collaborated with A Human Space to create this affirming reminder to give time to healing. The piece reads, “Our world can heal. I can allow our world time to heal.”  Located on 33rd St and Frisby St across from Giant in Better Waverly and Greenmount Area. Acrylic on wood panel. Art by me. Words by A Human Space. June 2020.
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