A Word With Shane Devries

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Interview By Owen L.

When we first saw Shane Devries’ paintings, we flipped our lids. We flipped our lids so hard the neighbours complained about all the flipping noises. After packing in his day job last year to concentrate on painting, Shane is brand new to the art scene in A-town – but, luckily, he has an ace up his sleeve: he’s lid-flippingly talented. In the wake of his terribly cool Monster Kid exhibition at Gallery 139, we sat down with Shane to have a word about future plans, how to cultivate a mysterious aura, and (for some reason) Rolf de Heer.
 
So we’re all on the record now, don’t go saying anything incriminating.
I’m incredibly nervous to be honest!
 
What? Why are you nervous??
I’ve got no idea…
 
Don’t be nervous. To show you how casual things are, I wrote these questions five minutes ago.
Oh. That’s good.
 
So: Where did you use to work?
I just finished working in an advertising company about two months ago to paint full time, basically. For the (Monster Kid) exhibition. And that was really fun working [at the advertising company]. I got to do art direction and stuff like that. Storyboarding and illustrating and all sorts of stuff.
 
 
What kind of stuff did you do?
TV ads, doing storyboards for that. That was a lot of fun. Heaps of stuff; billboard designs, magazine ads, postcards, posers – everything that’s advertising.
 
The name of the place?
Showpony Advertising. They’re on Rundle St.
 
Any big clients?
Yeah, they did Budweiser. I did a website for them. They did some stuff for Bridgestone and Coopers…
 
Work on the Peter Brock ads then?
No. I did have to do some stuff with the lizard, which was quite fun.
 
Are you responsible for having it stick its tongue onto the wheel and be dragged along?
No.
 
Oh.
Well if you’re anything like me then you don’t watch much TV at all.
 
Anyway: now that you’ve finished with that job, it must mean you’re pretty free to do your own thing.
Yeah, pretty much. It’s funny, when you get given something that you have to draw or paint, you don’t enjoy it as much at all. You’re not into it, and it’s more a chore. So it was good to get out there and just paint whatever the hell I wanted.
 
Yeah?
Yeah.
 
So when you were painting up until late, was it all for the Monster Kid exhibition?
Some of it was, some of it was just these little projects that I made for myself. I’ve been wanting to work eventually somewhere like Pixar or Animal Logic in Sydney – which would be a lot of fun doing character design and all that sort of stuff.
 
So that’s where you’d like to take it eventually, to the big animation studios?
Yeah, I love working on that stuff. If ever there’s a new cartoon that comes out I always go to see that.
 
Big fan of Pixar?
Ooo yeah. I love all the art books that you can buy. Some of the stuff in that is incredible, and I’d love to be doing stuff like that.
 
So are you a 3D animation man or 2D?
Each has got its own good points. I was watching some 2D stuff the other day and it’s incredible. You have to be unbelievably skilled and talented to be able to draw movement. I reckon for 2D you have to be able to pick up on nuances on movement so much more than perhaps you do with 3D. But then I don’t know if that’s true.
 
 
 
I just never get that sense that 3D has a soul.
Yeah, 2D stuff is really good – stuff like Howls Moving Castle, or Spirited Away.
So you’re a fan of Miyazaki?
I haven’t looked at much of it – only on the surface.
 
You should check out Princess Mononoke. (Interviewer shitson about Princess Mononoke for three minutes)
Yeah? I’ll go have a look.
 
Well please do. The Monster Kid exhibition went pretty well for you.
Yeah. Couldn’t be happier with that one. I’m a little bit gobsmacked, to be honest. I was a little bit nervous, to be honest, before it. To invest all that time and energy into it… I was really happy with what I did, but I don’t know if I would have done if it hadn’t have gone well. It would have been pretty disheartening. I’m absolutely chuffed.
 
Where do your characters come from? Have you developed them over the years?
Not really! I drew a weird looking pony last year, and I really liked the style of that, and it was just like exploring all these silly characters and using that same style and the same lighting… It was fun inventing. It started off as a silly little sketch, and the fun bit was making something a little disproportionate, like a kid had drawn it, and then painting it semi-realistic.
 
The lighting is the main thing I loved! It’s just so spot on in everything you do. How do you calculate that?
By stressing about it. A lot. I get heaps of references, so if I’m painting a balloon I’ll get heaps of pictures of balloons and I’ll work out what it’s supposed to look like. A lot of referencing and looking at other paintings. I really like the old masters who’ve just nailed it. Like the stuff hanging in the art gallery. That’s my benchmark. It’s really high.
 
A good place to aim.
I’m just someone for who skill factor and talent level plays a huge part in art that I appreciate.
 
Do you have a big story based around the paintings?
Not really. It’s pretty spasmodic. A lot of it I just drew at my desk while I was at work last year. You’d be sitting there, and almost daydream (the characters) out. They don’t really have stories. They’re just cool. That kid in the tree and the monster down the bottom and the flying creatures; I don’t really know what it’s about! It’s just fun.
 
 
Have you thought about stringing them together into a picture book?
Yeah. I reckon that’d be pretty cool. I really like Sean Tan’s work, and to do something like that would be really cool.
 
So there’s no symbolism behind your work? Not even a bit of a cheeky metaphor about capitalism and the working class?
I think that’s maybe what I lack a bit. I go for stuff that looks good, rather than the theory and the story behind it. I felt that I was floundering a bit with that with this one. Just because you’d get people asking ‘What’s it about? Give me as reason!’ and I was like ‘I don’t know! It’s fun and looks cool!’
 
Where to next?
I dunno! I’m just enjoying it at the moment. I’m definitely doing what I was dreaming of doing about five years ago.
 
(Interviewer tells unrelated anecdote about Rolf de Heer)
Yeah. I kind of get it though, cause when you look at a painting that someone’s done a few hundred years ago, you sort of want to know what it’s about, what they’re trying to say. So I feel a little bit responsible. I know what I’m doing is pretty light-hearted, but. If I saw them I would be asking the same stuff!
 
But you never want to ruin your own mystique and give it all away. You need the mysterious aurora. ‘Oooo, it’s Devries… What’s he up to?’
Yeah…
 
What’s it like selling a painting you’ve worked so hard on?
It’s a bit scary. I don’t really want to! …It’s weird. I was looking at one of my paintings the other day, and you see the brush strokes – but you don’t remember how you did it. You remember doing it, but you don’t remember actually putting that bit there – it’s almost like you’re in the zone.
 
Well that’s the end of my hastily scrawled down questions, then.
Okay.