Artist Profile: Maria Schirmer Devitt
In 2020, Maria Schirmer Devitt quit her job to make art. Trained as a social worker, she was working in a public health community organizing program. The work was important and animated her key values: equity, community, and social justice, but she increasingly found the methods at odds with a new awakening within her. Maria wanted to center creativity to express the full spectrum of joy and suffering within and around her. Today she works as a community artist. Maria has designed murals with youth in juvenile detention centers; used letterpress to make books about wishing wells; and grown plants to dye fabric.
1) How does community factor into how you engage with art?
I believe that every single person on planet earth is needed to help shift the world’s current trajectory. Making art in community is a way to practice seeing one another’s unique role and voice as well as to create things that have not existed before. I create collaborative projects that combine individual voices with a shared sense of purpose and belonging.
2) What are 2-3 inspirations that have affected your growth and artistic process in the past several years?
As a child, words were hard to come by. My twin sister was affectionately dubbed "the professor." She often would speak for both of us. I preferred to watch the world—feeling deeply—but often shy to share my experiences. One of my growth areas as an artist is to allow myself to be seen plus find my own voice. The residency at the Bubbler this fall has provided me with support and courage to make the art I am dreaming to make. Through the Madison Public Library Bubbler residency, I had the opportunity to collaborate with woodmaker Sylvie Rosenthal to create a wishing well at the Central Library branch. Her work offers beautiful, whimsical, strong and functional art. I also feel really lucky to have started taking art and design classes at Madison College. It is hands down one of the best educational experiences of my life; the instructors there have really helped me grow. Letterpress printing has also helped me find my voice. Most of my work, even my murals, often include type.
(Maria setting up a passive prompt with typewriter for her residency at Bubbler in Madison Central Library. )
3) What would be your dream exhibit or gallery space?
One of my greatest teachers and sources of inspiration is the natural world so would love to do a public art exhibit outdoors. I’ve been really into learning about oak savannas. Before colonization, it was the dominant ecosystem here in Wisconsin. Now they are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. (We loved them too hard!) When I am in an oak savanna, I feel both spacious and cozy: a sense of wonder—and protection. I would love to create an exhibit that incorporates those feelings of awe and safety by inviting folks into deepening their relationship with their own body and the world around them.
4) What are 2-3 exhibitions, concerts, books, spoken word events and/or films you're hoping to check out in the near future?
I cannot wait for Prentis Hemphill’s book to come out: Becoming the People for Our Time: How Healing Ourselves Can Transform the World. Prentis’ work helps guide my own creative and personal practice, working toward embodied healing, which feels like a mirror for healing our world and creating the kind of change I am yearning for.
I just saw the California Honeydrops at the High Noon last week and it was an incredible show! Their positive energy is contagious so I would love to catch them again while they are on tour.
As a lover of children’s books and telling powerful stories with textiles, I cannot wait to check out the Faith Ringgold exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.