Thank you, Devan
February 2023
This month we bid farewell to Devan Malore, a Boxerwood friend to the end. More than a friend – an inspiration! If you never had the good fortune to meet Devan, quite likely you still met his outdoor art. And if you met his art (here and there and everywhere), then you had met Devan: free-spirited, generous, capable of creating beauty, humor, and human connection with a couple of sticks and a bunch of mismatched paint. We give thanks for our friend’s life amongst us and all the ways he accompanied us along the Boxerwood way. Devan’s final resting place is The Meadow, with a memorial art celebration planned for spring 2023.
Devan Malore: In his own words
While many of us during the pandemic were hunkering down, Devan kept up his wide-ranging wanderings and creative activities. He shared this reflection with us in summer 2020, for an upcoming Newlseaf:
People often ask, “Are you the guy who makes the art?” Suppose I am. Scattered around Boxerwood and other places are mostly wood art projects usually made from found, salvaged, scrap, gifted materials. I started making abstract art projects years ago with materials gathered while working with a small construction crew. There’s an amazing amount of waste, scrap, left overs from construction. Rather than logical planned out or from a blueprint construction, art can be made differently. There’s a kind of, let’s see what shows up, what I can do with this material. Practical and imaginative come together, who knows what gets created.
. . . I’m an outdoor person, hiking, biking, camping, floating, hammock in trees, Master naturalist training, Boxerwood volunteering. Any reason to get me outdoors, observing, collecting materials, cultivating imagination, is appreciated. Something that caught my attention years ago were the twisting, long branches often found under our impressive sycamore trees. Cutting into the wood I found it easy to work with, interesting grain, free for the hauling. Later after watching the sycamore break down quickly outdoors, also found a limitation of this organic material.
Observing outdoor art weather become insect habitat, lose color, rust, is part of the experimental part of the art. Some of these simple looking art works might have four of five different types of wood, even wood I don’t recognize. The construction is often possible because of modern tools, glues, connectors now abundant and reasonably priced. It is in a way a golden age for artists.
Another memory is years ago hiking the Appalachian Trail. Passing through a beautiful forest in Vermont I entered a farm, noticed a metal sculpture hanging from rustic barn. The forest and art might compliment each other in good ways, I thought. Maybe from that time on I felt a need to cultivate a love of nature along with joy of human creations. So no surprise I was drawn to Boxerwood with its unusual collection of plants, trees, gardens, art works, classes, performances, teaching staff.
My abstract works can be unusual and I often have no idea what they might become or where they came from. But at least in small ways I am attempting to work with organic materials that might otherwise be off to dumpster or landfill. If you have organic materials, construction leftovers, please remember the collection at Boxerwood where you might find me going through the piles looking for osage orange branches, cedar logs, rusty metal roofing panels that just might be returned to Boxerwood as something practical or an art abstract.
I have also sold some art over the years and have a collection of ribbons from art shows. After some years of doing practical carpentry abstract art and thinking it might generate a good balance, keep mind open to new possibilities. Please continue supporting Boxerwood and [the] unique gifts it offers our diverse community.
