Meet Devon Bailey | Artist & Longshore woman

We had the good fortune of connecting with Devon Bailey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Devon, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Honestly I didn’t really set out to start my own business, I just love painting and as my audience grew organically and I was selling more paintings I realized there was a demand for my work so I created a website and started selling prints.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I feel my artistic journey really kicked off when I dropped out of art school to focus more on painting, sounds a bit jarring, but when I was in a critique and my teacher said ” You know your work is just too representational.. you could be a really successful regional artist” aimed as an insult, I took it as a compliment. Andrew Wyeth, Ed Hopper, and Norman Rockwell are some of my all time favorites who I would aspire to be like after all. So I really thought about what can I capture in a painting that is unique to me and my surroundings. Living in South Boston it feels like every month you loose another iconic triple decker or mom and pop breakfast spot to real estate developments so I began documenting things as they are, and even going back in time through city records, and relatives closets for photos to paint things as they were. It was really rewarding to have my work regarded as really capturing a happy memory for people. What started off with me documenting local landmarks or business lead to a focus on documenting my other career as a longshore woman. When people ask what I do and I say “I paint, and I’m a Longshoreman” people who haven’t lived right by the docks in South Boston always ask “What is a Longshoreman” which the simple answer “We work on container ships.” to me fails to capture just how much goes into working on the docks. We operate cranes, load road trucks, drive hustlers, pin containers, lash and unlash them, preform all the mechanical maintenance on our ports equipment, we have the best views of the city, and we are open rain, snow, or shine 24 hours a day 365 days a year whenever a ship docks at our port. Documenting the scenes of the docks I could never run out of new points of view because theres so many working parts, and with the yard of containers always going in and out the landscape is ever changing. These are by far the paintings I am most enthusiastic about creating, because they really shine a light on a given that not many people understand. We all have things we take for granted will just show up and be there; gas, groceries, lumber, almost anything you can think of that you have in front of you came to you through a shipping container at one point or another, and I document that point through my paintings.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Honestly I would be a terrible tour guide, I would send a visitor out with my husband Dave, let him show you around while I stayed in the studio painting. Of course i would meet up for dinner tho maybe at Cafe Porto Bello they have a shrimp scampi Pizza that I can’t resist!

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Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My Dad, Conrad Bailey, has been my toughest critic and also my biggest supporter through my entire painting career. Sense I first started drawing in middle school he was over my shoulder in the studio with priceless lessons on technique. Through today it is so helpful to have the best artist I know on call any time of day to lend a fresh eye to all of my work, and to keep pushing me to get better and better. After trading in his illustration hat for a welding mask his transition to sculpture work has been amazing to witness so his work deserves a shout out of its own! You can find him on instagram @nausetmetals

Website: https://www.devonrbailey.com/

Instagram: @devon.r.bailey