Lolita Develay
Lolita Develay received her MFA in 2014 from University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Painting and Drawing. She has exhibited nationally and is currently an Adjunct Professor at College of Southern Nevada. Her recent project, American Woman is a explores the intersection of the changing landscape of racial identity in America and female self acceptance. It questions what it means to be visible in today’s world and who is elevated to levels of importance through their depiction in Fine Art portraiture.
"My work draws from a lifelong fascination with science, popular culture and current events. These tenants are used to explore darker aspects of human experience and psyche. I use humor and color to filter difficult ideas like death, addiction, anxiety and depression in order to subvert superficial tropes or easy answers. These artworks are autobiographical, but are ultimately intended to provide the viewer with an opportunity to peer into the depths of their own inner workings, to see themselves reflected back.""
Miles’ work is concerned with creating visual mythologies out of things he encounters in the course of his everyday life. While the impetus for his imagery comes from real people and places, Miles looks to transform them into spaces and events that could only exist in the mind. He often paints on site and from life, but currently his work begins with photos of friends along with landscapes he knows, followed by digital collage and manipulation, and eventually the construction of still life set-ups in his studio which are also photographed and re-photographed from various angles. This visual thinking process leads to his painting compositions, which often continue to morph and change as the painting progresses. While he utilizes technology, Miles is interested in bringing us back to the look and feel of the real world, and aims to create something more corporeal, fantastic and thought-provoking than he could produce though strictly digital means.
"“My family members are religious non-artists, whose taste in art has been shaped primarily by framed reproductions of paintings of floral arrangements, bucolic landscapes, and Jesus praying. I can’t escape wanting these people who are important to me to understand the work I make and why. But given the strong moral lessons of my upbringing, especially an almost obsessive requirement for honesty, I am compelled to attend to my gut-level interest in formal issues such as composition and color (which, for me, are best satisfied working non-representationally). Thus a fundamental problem in my work is making abstract imagery with enough accessibility to draw in the average viewer.
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