Young artist makes strides in community
A young Nakia Devereaux got serious about art in the third grade when his elementary school art teacher Miss Lee started really encouraging him.
“I was working on a project and she taught me to keep putting effort into it,” he said. “Miss Lee told me, ‘An artist is never done.’” His persistence paid off his teenage years when he created three murals in Shreveport- Bossier City. His first was a mural for the Fuller Center for Housing of Northwest Louisiana. Second was a commission from Bossier Arts Council Executive Director Robin Jones and his third mural he created last year can be seen in the waiting room at Shiners Hospital for Children in Shreveport.
Deveraux said the mural created for the children at Shriner’s Hospital represents hope and he hopes that his artworks will brighten the day of everyone who views it.
Since graduating from Haughton High School in 2014, he is pursuing his bachelor’s in fine arts at Dallas Baptist University and taking courses at the Academy of Art in San Francisco in graphic design.
This month, Devereaux’s work will be on display through Feb. 6 with an opening reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 30 at the Bossier Arts Council, located at 630 Barksdale Blvd. in Bossier City.
“Art helped open me up to the world. It opens up your mind and it brought pictures into my head. In the seventh grade, Miss Tonya Arnold really pushed me to read and reading really opened me up creatively. Reading helped me to interpret things with a fresh and different focus in my art,” Devereaux said.
“I began to look at things from a different angle and to think differently. It no longer had to be three plus three equals six. It could be four plus two or five plus one to arrive at the same figure. Another great influence on me along the way was Miss Jones in my freshman year. She kept pushing me forward in the exploration and expansion of my art,” Devereaux said.
“I was really never into math [and] was really never very good at it until Miss Allen, one of my teachers at Haughton High School, showed me that geometry is in art. She had me draw shapes and took the time to help me understand how the shapes in math correlate to art,” Devereaux said.
Originally drawing with pencils and colored pencils in a realistic style, Devereaux now delves more into the world of abstract. He has also expanded in his mediums moving on to acrylics and even working in clay at one point. Early on, he also developed a love of working in origami, the Japanese art of paper-folding.
“If it is art, I will do it. To me, art comes naturally and it has a very calming effect on me,” he said.
Devereaux said faith plays a very important part in his life as he feels he is called to do his art and that his talent is God given.
“To me, my art is not about making money, it is something that brings me joy. It is certainly not about me but about helping others see the world perhaps in an entirely different light. I am a very positive person, and I want my art to be putting out positive energy in the world,” Devereaux said.
His senior project at Haughton High School explored how art affects the mind. The large abstract he created for his senior project now hangs in The Fuller Center in Shreveport. The title of the piece, which he donated to The Fuller Center, is, appropriately, “The Sunshine of Faith.”
When it comes to art, Devereaux said, “What you see is what you get.”
“Three years ago, Nakia came to us as a high school student, and we have watched him flourish in that short amount of time,” Robin Jones, executive director of the Bossier Arts Council, said.
“Nakia’s work clearly speaks from his soul. His passion comes through in each and every piece. There is no doubt that he will accomplish great things in the art world.”
–Karl Hasten
LeArn More:
For more information about Nakia Devereaux, call 741-8310. Lower Annex Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
