We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mary Devincentis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mary, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
The foundational practice which supports and fosters my creativity as an artist is the cultivation of mindfulness, which means that I begin as well as punctuate each day with periods of meditation. When you can re-train your heart, mind and body to be fully present in each given moment, the world of experience is never routine or stale. Instead, it is a source of fascination and wonder and provides a wealth of possibilities for creative inspiration.
For days when other responsibilities prevent me from spending a significant amount of time in the studio, I make sure to keep a small portable sketchbook handy, which I use to jot down ideas, inspirational sources and to create initial sketches which I then develop into paintings. On such days, I also make sure to stay connected to my art practice by staying in contact with other artists and their work. For example, before I begin a painting, I often invoke, from a meditative state, artists from both the past and the present who influence and inspire my work. I envision them as being participant-advisors in what I then create. It is a ritualized, conscious means of acknowledging that the work I do stems from a greater, more universal source than my own individual identity. This practice keeps me humble and also combats the loneliness I sometime feel when I am in the studio.
Because painting, like writing, is such a solitary activity, being part of a community is essential. In fact, I define one of my primary goals as an artist is to participate in an on-going and ever-widening conversation about creativity, art-making and humanity. Community also functions as a creative container, where I can be inspired by artists from a multitude of disciplines and backgrounds vastly different than my own. I find it important to my artistic development to attend openings, exhibitions and museums as well as to visit other artists in their studios and interact with them on social media.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I have been a painter for over fifty years, creating work that is inspired by my ongoing interest in storytelling. As a species with the capacity to remember our past and imagine our future, storytelling seems to be in our DNA. Whether myth or memory, imagined or experienced, personal or societal, our stories connect us to our core concerns, our deepest aspirations and our fears. It is exciting and challenging for me to discover an emblematic moment in a narrative to develop into a painting that captures the gritty uncertainties, dilemmas and predicaments that we each encounter as we stumble, bumble, nose-dive and occasionally sail through life. The human and animal figures in my paintings may have bodily distortions, seem nearly incorporeal, be part animal or phantasmagorical in nature. Each inhabits a vivid world which exists outside of time yet resides inside our shared consciousness as sentient beings.
In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in and opportunities to exhibit my paintings both locally and nationally. I attribute this shift to my own development as an artist and also to the role of social media in providing a quantum leap in visual exposure. In 2024, I had a solo exhibit at the Andrea Festa Gallery in Rome, Italy. My work was exhibited in Expo Chicago and Untitled Art Fair in Miami via the NYC based gallery Freight and Volume, and included in a two-person exhibition at Monya Rowe Gallery in NYC. So far in 2025, I am looking forward to a solo exhibit at TV Projects in Brooklyn, New York and participation in a group show in Amsterdam.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
In my opinion, the most essential quality to have for the ongoing pursuit of any creative endeavor is a clear sense of purpose. For instance, we all know the life story of the artist Vincent Van Gogh and his struggles with poverty, isolation and physical and mental instability. Yet, regardless of his challenges and circumstances, he continued to paint. What made that possible was his unwavering motivation to express his love and deep compassion for humanity through his paintings, as evidenced by his own words: “What is done in love is done well,” and “I believe that an artist is a person who touches people’s hearts.”
Having a clear sense of purpose fosters the development of the second of the three most important qualities, which is perseverance. Over the arc of a lifetime of being a painter, there have been many a fallow era when the kind of work I do is outside of current trend and styles. During those times, my sense of purpose and clarity of motivation fuel my ability to keep on working despite receiving little external support or validation.
The third important quality for me is that of the cultivation of psychological health and maturity. Although this is a state of being that can increase naturally as we gain experience and wisdom in living, I have found it essential for my own development to commit to a number of means by which to gain self-awareness, to heal from trauma and loss and establish a healthy foundation of self- esteem and self-acceptance.
How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?
More visibility, more opportunities and more success as an artist brings new challenges. The challenge that I currently face concerns the developmental integrity of my work. It is natural for an artist who has begun to gain a following and sell work more regularly to want to see that trend continue. It is at this juncture that it is tempting to retreat from risk taking and begin to repeat the previously explored themes, methods, subjects and solutions that viewers, gallerists and collectors have come to anticipate. It is my belief that succumbing to that temptation may initially result in more opportunities and sales, but comes with the risk of becoming cut off from the deepest source of my inspiration, which is transpersonal in nature. This transpersonal quality can only find its way into the object of creation in its own time and through a state of receptivity and pervasive non-selective awareness. To trust one’s own intuitive process however illogical it seems, rather than create work strategically results in paintings that develop organically, in which the unexpected, the emotionally relevant and resonant can emerge and find expression. I find that such work, whether my own or by others, often has an aliveness, an originality and freshness which is deeply meaningful both to the artist and to those who encounter it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.marydevincentis.com
- Instagram: @mairedev
Image Credits
all photos courtesy of the artist, except the photo of my work in a gallery setting, which is courtesy of Freight and Volume Gallery.
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
