Making art for me is like being on a long creative and spiritual journey. The art process has always been a consuming, stimulating passion in my life. I live to create…it is something that keeps me going every day.

Born in Washington D.C. and raised in the Northern Virginia area, Dee began creating art at a very early age and has never stopped. She was always interested in art and by the time Dee got to high school and then college she was totally immersed in it. Dee works full time at DevaArt Studio in Virginia. She creates paintings in several different genres; wildlife, birdlife, sealife and stylized art. 

Creating art is a meditative experience and helps to bring a deep connection within myself.

Her works include paintings in archival ink, acrylic ink and alcohol ink. Alcohol ink flows freely in a very fluid manner, which lets her create images that have an impressionistic/realistic quality.

Alcohol ink captivated me from the first time I used this energetic medium.

The acrylic ink she uses is water-resistant and permanent as are the alcohol and archival inks. The acrylic ink dries very fast and does not move once it has dried, which is why she can create beautiful glazes in layers and smooth surface effects.

Sometimes I will use archival ink pens to capture very detailed and delicate lines. 

In her wildlife and sealife paintings Dee captures the whimsical nature and free spirit of my animal subjects. She creates her own personal interpretation of what she sees and feels through color and visual expression of the subject.

Dee's newest collection is called, SoulWorks. In this collection she uses healing colors, symbols and shapes that play a significant role in the creation of her spiritual art.

SoulWorks Collection

I strive to create a sense of enigma in my SoulWorks paintings.
 

Part of her SoulWorks collection are Dee's intuitive ZenDala paintings, which are hand-drawn and painted. Animal ZenDalas are usually selected for their symbolic imagery, such as elephants, dragonflies and butterflies. To find out more about ZenDalas, click here.

Fine Art Background

Dee’s fine art classes consisted of a lot of art history, painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, illustration, communication design and website design (which has greatly helped me when it came time to design my own art websites and art blogs).

When I first started painting I was always intrigued with people’s faces, especially eyes. My love for animals and using them as subjects in my art has always inspired me. And I was strongly influenced by dance at an early age, since I danced (tap and jazz) and performed for many years. This exhilarating feeling of how I felt when I danced was brought across visually in the art I painted or drew at that time, which were theatrical in nature. I have terpsichorean (to dance with delight, a muse of dancing) desires to dance and will always do so!

Several years after college Dee traveled to Europe and experienced art created by the Masters. She visited Paris twice, and was literally mesmerized by the paintings and sculpture seen at the Louvre Museum and the gardens and architecture at the Palace of Versailles. She experienced art in every country visited; Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, London and The Netherlands where she had the utmost pleasure in seeing Vincent Van Gogh's art up close and personal on a visit to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Closer to home in Washington, D.C., on one of her many trips there to see spectacular fine art, Dee visited the Phillips Gallery where she was within inches of her favorite Impressionist, Renoir and his painting, The Boating Party.

I was so overcome with emotion upon seeing his work…it was just too beautiful for words.

Dee has been influenced by the Impressionist artists (Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet, to name just a few) the Art Nouveau period, notably the artist Alphonse Mucha, the Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist who lived in Paris during this time. He was best known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters.

Creating and seeing art has been like keeping a very personal journal throughout my life. It nourishes my soul like food does for my body. I could not live without it…

Tamara de Lempicka is her favorite painter of the Art Deco style with her stunning, self-expressive sculptural-like paintings, Gustav Klimt, the Austrian symbolist painter and member of the Vienna Art Nouveau (Vienna Secession) movement is another favorite, Salvador Dali and his wonderful surrealistic works (she painted in this style in college) and Vincent Van Gogh, the Dutch post-impressionist painter with his bright and colorful landscapes and the use of his expressive and dramatic brushwork.

I create my own personal interpretation in my paintings from what I believe in, using healing colors, expression of form and placement of the subject throughout the piece I’m working on.

I was lucky to have such wonderful art teachers in my life early on. My college art professor inspired and encouraged me in so many ways which helped me establish myself as an artist and learn about the business of art.