WORDS BY IRVIN RIVERA

There’s an innate fluid energy present in visual artist TONY DEVONEY’s paintings. Colors that seem to take liberty in representing a myriad of emotions dominate his canvas. His works are electric, sensual and quite experiential. It tags you along the artist’s and your own journey, tapping into your emotions and memories, as you slowly add your own layers of meanings to the colorful masterpieces.

I met Tony a while back through social media and we’ve been planning to shoot for years. I am glad and honored to actually be able to shoot and interview him in his Hollywood studio earlier this year. The moment I first saw his paintings online, I immediately formed some vague sense of connection with it. Meeting the artist in person is a way more intimate and personal experience as you get To experience his art in his environment. I also got to see him paint while being suspended in some sort of a hammock framed by something used for yoga (if I am not mistaken).

In this exclusive interview, learn more about this artist that you should definitely pay attention to. Read on and learn more about Tony’s journey, his passion, inspirations, upcoming projects, and his creative process.

Hello Tony, How's it going?

It's going pretty good.

Tell us a little bit about your journey as an artist. How did it start for you? Did you go to school? Were you into art since you were young?                          

Yes. I started out drawing as a kid, probably around 10 or 11, and then I took art all throughout high school - all 5 years of high school. And I planned on going to the Art Institute in Nevada- in Las Vegas, and that didn't work out so I ended up going to the Navy. Then after getting out of the Navy, I decided to just start painting, and it was when I was living with my grandmother. Before I moved to California I discovered my love for it.

I guess I just discovered that I really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I did. And it was there that I cleared out my grandmother's shed, and I started painting every day. And then I did one art show and it was after I sold a piece for a 1000 dollars that I thought, well maybe I should think about actually doing this more often. So then I started doing that and I saved up and moved to California. It's been about six years, almost seven that I've been aspiring to do this full time and yes, it's been a rocky road but I've enjoyed every moment of it.

Right? As long as you enjoy it, that's the most important thing.

That's true.

How would you describe your art, and especially for those people who are not familiar with it yet

Definitely vibrant. I love using every color in the rainbow. What's more, I love fluorescents, I just love working with colors and mixing them with different hues and variations, and seeing how it makes me feel. I love using color energies, so definitely very colorful. I tend to have a lot of movement in my work which also goes along with the color energy. I want my work to make you feel happy. That's always been my intent with when creating pieces.

Where do you draw your inspirations from whenever you make these pieces? Is it mostly from whatever you feel in the moment or it varies?

When I first started this, it was definitely just what I was feeling in the moment. Maybe, like I heard a song and it made me happy so I wanted to use reds and pinks, you know, because it was like a song called card something, and that's kind of how it started out. But as I've evolved and matured in my practice, I feel like I've definitely started to conceptualize more.

I conceptualize now compared to the past. Maybe like five years ago, I'd say it was definitely more of I was inspired by just what I was feeling in my emotions and what I was feeling that year, but now it's more conceptualized and based off of shapes and how different things, how different colors and movements make you feel. It still stems a lot from my emotions and how I'm feeling and how I want to feel for the most part.

Which artists inspire you?

A few of them would be Nick Tom, Heather Day, Jen Stark, just to name a few. I love, they're all very different, but they use vibrant colors as well and lots of liquid, so big inspirations of learning and they're all pretty successful in the industry. Yes, big inspirations.

For anyone who wants to pursue the art industry, because the process is different for everybody, but I feel like there's some generality to it to all of us artists. What advice can you give to someone who wants to break in and wants to be as successful as you? 

I would say, I'm not successful yet. But also, if you want to try and tackle this journey, I'd say work really hard. When you think that you should take a break, don't take a break, and find your specific style that's going to make you stand out because you want to stand out. 

Love that.

Yes, it's the only way in this industry.

How were you, speaking of style, able to find your own style?

I honestly I don't even know how to answer that. I've kind of just gone with what I feel and it's just evolved naturally. And I've taken breaks and in those breaks have definitely conceptualized and experimented, every time I take a break from painting for a while. You know, six months since, I'll experiment a lot with different styles and techniques, different paints, different tools and materials that I've always wanted to try and, and then usually, my style kind of builds off of that and evolves.

But you never stop painting. 

No, no. I haven't. It’s now six years. 

You're experimenting.

Yes. 

That's good, though. It's like you keep doing, what you're doing, see how it evolves and see where it takes you. So what's the plan? What are you excited about this year next year, even though you know, given that Corona is here, what's the plan? 

I'm excited for next year because, I'm really excited for this new series that I'm working on. I've spent the most time conceptualizing for this body of work than I have for any body of work that I've ever made. So I'm really excited to complete it and showcase it and for the first time I'm going to be making professional prints of this series. So I'm really excited for that. I'm also excited for getting into some galleries this next year and just you know, riding this journey out more and seeing what it has to offer.

Is there a title for the series here now? 

There is, I haven't announced it but it's going to be called Elements. That's the title.

If you were a book, what book would you be and why?

Maybe, “Trust your Journey”. 

I don't know. I mean, I'm just thinking about my rollercoaster ride from pursuing this. So yes, I don't know, Trust your Journey. 

That's nice.

Colorize energy, I don't know, kind of have to think about it, you're going to leave and then I'm going to know exactly what to say.