About Devany

I am an Arizona-born and -based oil painter, honing my craft for the last five years. Within art history I have always found painting a necessary method of self-expression, record and revolution. I value it as a traditional art and means of discussing social and political upheaval in not only a shared, but personal sense.

As a queer woman, my connection to my body and sexuality has always been tedious, a feeling I’ve heard echoed throughout my community. From the first time my friends and I were catcalled in the sixth grade by a group of college students, I’ve been acutely aware of the space I inhabit. The work I create provides a platform to communicate and relate to these anxieties, often using graphic imagery to explore the relationship between people, their bodies, their government, and their gods. Hands are found consistently through my portfolio to explore these subjects. A full range of emotions can be expressed universally through a pair of hands, the dexterity and nuance of their gestures acting as relatable conduits of joy, rage, sorrow, seduction, tension. They mean to visually pull an audience in, and have them walk out thinking either, “I didn’t know that’s what it’s like,” or “Me, too.”