Devin || Speaking Dreams Out Loud
Guys. Devin is one of my closest friends. She has also turned a whole lot of passion and technical skills into a wonderful and creative artistic practice! I met her in Chicago through friends and through Missio Dei, and was immediatley grateful for her energy, joy, and love. Our first time hanging out she hosted the world's best gals-only NYE party and we danced the night away and she wasn't even mad at me when I not only dropped my full glass of red wine, but also shattered the glass and cut our friend Bethany's foot and spilled her blood. Neither was upset and instead it became a funny marker in our friendship.
At her salon in Chicago she dyed my hair blue-the-color-of-my-eyes and then did it again when she was a featured RAW Artist. She's the type of person who visits you when you're doing fieldwork in Iceland, and camps for her first time ever...in ICELAND.
Since I moved from Chicago she has embraced her creative drive and been BUSY. That's what this interview is about. Let’s hear her story:
“My mom was a hairstylist, so I grew up around it. ”
Though Devin was drawn to the idea of cosmotology school, her high school emphasized college above trade school. Through that influence she felt that going to study at cosmotology school wouldn’t showcase her worth or intelligence the same as college. She graduated and went to Akron to study but realized in her first year that she really did want to do hair.
Her dreams began to grow as she thought about what this career would mean for her. She knew she didn’t want to do exactly what her mom did, so she explored apprenticeships in Chicago and even considered pursuing hair design on Broadway, tying in her love for the theatre.
“Moving to Chicago was a huge game changer for me. I was immediately immersed in creativity in this moving city. ”
For Devin, even seeing more sunsets and sunrises as she ran along the lake training for her first marathon inspired creativity. She found herself in a technical program where she felt empowered by her abilities, but simultanesoulsy she was in an unhealthy salon— a place that was constricting other areas of creative growth.
One of the first transitions from this environment came when she began working with her friend Rachel.
“I asked her: what can I do to help you be a photographer? ”
She began styling hair for shoots with Rachel, but Devin still found herself in a box.
“I thought that being a creative meant choosing a field. a BOOM. That’s what you do.”
But as she watched Rachel dabble in many creative spaces and grow— she began to open up that box. She found herslef second-shooting a wedding with Rachel, directing styled shoots, hosting creative dinners, organizing a creativity retreat, and more.
She began to ask the question: Can these roles be a career? Are they defined?
She still felt that creative things other than hair as a career would be impossible.
“And I feel like that’s where God just opened the flood gates to all things being possible”
Things, though odd at the time, started happening. When she was in Iceland visiting me, some issues began occuring with her work, a few months later she had to leave her salon (where she’d felt she’d be forever) and started at a new salon.
“This opened me up creatively and realizing that nothing is forever, and I started to speak these dreams I had outloud. ”
Rachel and Devin dove deeper into their project Our Chicago Stories + Devin began to feel like she was really doing something through curating a space for people to be vulnerable.
Right now, Devin feels that her story is changing again…another transition.
“I want to create a space where a creative [everyone] can rest + discover + create. So many people are blocked by this world, and it feels like everyone is burning out. I want people to experience a friendship centered around creativity, like what I am blessed to have with Rachel. Collaboratation. That’s what I want space for. ”
So often the world, even where creativity thrives, has divides , but Devin wants to know what would happen if everyone could come together.
“What if the yoga instructor + the florist + the painter all got together... can you imagine what could be created with that many minds together?”
Through all of these thoughts and changes to her own understanding of what creativity can mean in her own life, I asked Devin how this journey has shaped her growth in her life in general.
“I have learned that the most important thing is to follow up with yourself”
This means taking time to focus, rest, and get into a mindset where passion can rise. She says that the best balayage she’s done, best marathon she’s run, best time with friends, best project, you name it…has been when she had taken time to learn herself a bit more.
“you don’t choose one thing and it’s forever”
And thus, there is freedom in that space, and a need to learn to love oneself.
So what does someone with this much passion, have as goals for this season? Devin says that she + Rachel plan to start making some events happen— a step in developing their brand.She is also working on her personal/hair brand— honing in on her skills and such.
To end, what advice would Devin leave us all with?
She says that the biggest block to our creativity is that we are afraid of judgement on our dreams. But she says, they’re dreams! Scary dreams are good! And talking about them can make them more than dreams.
“You’re doing a disservice to the world if you don’t speak your dreams”
And I think she’s really on to something.
All photos (besides Devin in a statue in Iceland, that’s me) were provided by the artist and were taken by Devin and/or Rachel. Thanks!
