November
27, 2014
Joyce
Frances Devlin: An artist’s Professional and Spiritual Journey
 On Saturday evening, September
20, 2014, a crowd of about 40 friends from Ottawa and West
Quebec gathered at the Baha'i Centre to hear the next installment in
the Spiritual Autobiography Series. The featured speaker was the
colourful, original and passionate artist Joyce
Frances Devlin who lives and works out her
studio-home in Burritt’s Rapids.
Devlin discovered in her early childhood that she had been gifted with
an exceptional artistic ability. She studied at the Vancouver School of
Art between 1950 and 1954 amongst leading figures in the modernist art
scene, graduating with honours. She was the recipient of the Emily Carr
scholarship and completed post-graduate studies in London, Florence and
Rome. Today her works appear in many prestigious private collections,
including the Firestone collection which writes that she has developed
”an interest in portraiture, landscape, and symbolic imagery. Devlin
created what she called “interior landscapes”: spiritually metaphorical
images of birds and flowers as well as the juxtaposition of
abstract collage with landscape imagery.” Her works are also found in
many public and corporate collections and she has had selected
commission works by the University of Ottawa, McMaster University, The
Senate of Canada and the Federal Court Commission.
The audience listened intently as Devlin recounted how she had been
prepared for the acceptance of the Baha'i Faith from her early
childhood onward, when she intuitively recognized, through her own
understanding, dreams and visions, that all the prophets and all the
great religions were one in their essence. Her preparation
for acceptance of the Baha'i Faith was partly due to the influence of
her liberal-minded father, who could not tolerate the teachings of the
church that all non-Christians would be sent to hell.
In the mid 1950’s, she had the honour of meeting the Guardian of the
Baha’i Faith, Shoghi Effendi, during her pilgrimage to the Baha’i
shrines in Haifa. Joyce was impressed by the beauty of Shoghi Effendi’s
character--by his humility, his refinement and his great vision and
insight. Those gathered were treated to a memorable evening as Joyce
recounted, with her usual unabashed frankness, verve and engaging
humour, the highlights of her rich professional and spiritual life in
British Columbia, Quebec City, England and in the Ottawa Valley.
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