I have always been an artist, but what I didn’t understand and needed to discover was how I can ‘be’ an artist – create art and balance that with life and family and having the energy for all of it. How do I have a career but also do things I really want to?

I had no idea what I wanted to do with art for any kind of career. Just creating paintings hoping people would buy them seemed exhausting and stressful. My idea of what an artist does or should be didn’t align with my vision.

I love my job (see detail on this in my ‘about‘ page), and I have been really lucky with the jobs that I have had. I also love the social part of my work too, not just amazing coworkers, but meeting different people every day and hearing their stories.

But there is always that urge: ‘be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.’

I like variety, I need art and creativity. I need the freedom to produce what manifests into art from my hands and vision.

I am thinking back to why I loved art so much from such a young age, and I think the answer is mostly that it is a quiet, individual activity! I didn’t rely on anyone else, it was all up to me, and my most treasured possessions were books and art supplies. I have memories of my mom and dad loving a drawing or painting I did and wanting to frame it. The one that stands out the most is an undersea picture I did of bright and colourful fish.

Creating is what sets my soul on fire, and I think what drives the fire are all the other pieces. My love of paperwork and attention to detail are satisfied and balance and compliment my desire to create. I have been working on my creative empire for years, and gradually came face to face with what I truly want to do. As Albert Einstein has said: “There comes a point in your life when you need to stop reading other people’s books and write your own.”

So I begin to write my own.

Hugs, Devon