Livestock
Oil on Canvas 30” x 40”
The painting “Livestock” is a passionately captured reaction to the recent setbacks in women’s rights in America. It speaks to many people in a way that words cannot describe.
It is quite an experience to feel like you have no autonomy, whether through learning how to set boundaries in adolescence or in becoming a mother and serving another human. It is completely another to have an institution dictate what you can and can’t do with your own body, and thus change the course of your life.
Water and Light
This series of work is inspired by photos taken at Newport Beach's Back Bay in California. It is, perhaps, symbolic of a rebirth for the artist - starting anew after many years away from her easel.
Cleansing, purifying, washing away and reflecting, movement and light are all elements to consider when looking at this work. The light itself becomes its own entity in the way it touches the body and dances on the water.
Women and Their Bodies
How does each woman relate to her body? This question has been so much a part of the artist's work since the beginning of her painting career. The female body is a weapon. It is a guarded treasure. It is an object; an object of shame or pride or bargaining. It belongs to someone else. It is of no consequence or it is a lifelong struggle.
Devon works through these questions within herself as well as posing them to the women around her. The answers are always evolving with age, time, environment and social issues.
These women had as much to do with the painting as the artist, posing only as they felt comfortable with their own bodies.
