Oppositional Forces

Houston-based artist Kelley Devine creates a breath of work that is both eye-catching and euphoric, alluding to something beyond a pretty face or strong features. These images are often at odds with one another through the use of paint and other materials, helping the artist to display the opposing forces of our own psyche. Although we harbor our own perceptions and internalize our own thoughts, they differ from others, putting us at odds. Her application of images in combination with materials such as pages from a book and various hues of warm blues to earthy pinks and stark blacks, visually and psychologically become contrary to one another. We asked this superwoman to describe her concept more in-depth and peel apart some of the layers of her concept.

One of the realms of your concept centers on the human psyche. What are some of the points of the psyche that you are drawn to and how does that play out in your pieces?

I love psychology, sociology, and behavioral studies in general. When I went back to painting after a hiatus (working with two small children), it was a way for me to communicate without having to use words. I can read a story of my family, my work, my marriage, and myself in those paintings. As time progressed, I continued to put my emotions into my work but in a more subversive way. Additionally, I began to include my feelings or observations of society or the expectations of society within the works.

In your artist statement, you open saying “I’m a compulsive creator; I make art in order to function normally.” How do your own philosophies and life influence your work and how do the relationships around you come out in some of your paintings?

My work is my life in a sense that my life and experiences are what I pull from as subject matter to my art. It is my way of communicating in my own language. That way I am honest with myself and those around me but still in control of what is known and understood by others. I tend to work in waves and better during stressful times. If I don’t work I feel simultaneously suffocated and full, like when you cannot exhale. Then I work madly.

Many of your pieces feature the subject of women. You yourself are a multidimensional woman as a mother, artist, and advocate. What type of perceptions and/or ideas of women do you use in your pieces?

I love working with the female form; it is beautiful as a whole. There are so many aspects in its balance of positive and negative that the proper line or shape can make something perceived as a fault into something pleasing. But that’s on the surface - for the truly interesting and beautiful is what a person is made of, their character and experiences. I’ve used or alluded to many emotions, roles, and perceptions of the self and society in my work. My earlier work consisted of pretty young women at the first glance, but upon further inspection the underlying colors, line, and form reveal an intense undercurrent of emotion. My later work, especially the Dangerous Game series, is more upfront regarding the issues—gender roles, independence, protectiveness, human and animal behaviors, and emotional reactions—both as an individual and of the perception within society.

There is an ongoing debate in society today about perception of individuals due to onslaughts in the media and cultural structures. How we maneuver through ourselves and our relation to others is now even harder to define and many result in playing a daily game in their situation. How do you hope your work and philosophies contribute to the discussion of the human situation while allowing your artwork to be a catalyst for your own life?

Media inherently changes the perception of individuals because it consciously or subconsciously affects the way we set our benchmarks defining normal, pleasing, abnormal, and unacceptable. I feel that my work both mirrors this and at the same time challenges it. Both my sculptures and my paintings present dualities to the viewer, but it is the viewer that has to take the time to observe the work, process, and understand the work through their own set of experiences, beliefs, and assumptions. This has the effect that what I see or present to be seen can be vastly different to someone else. This situation is conducive to shifting appearances at will and defining others by how they define you. My general hope is that if people can take the time to understand the different layers of a work of art (even if that work makes them uncomfortable) that they may be more willing to accept the different layers of a person. But, in the mean time, I may just mess with the viewer. I have the time to since I don’t watch or own a TV.

To learn more about Kelley’s work, please visit: www.kelleydevine.com