GALO Magazine met Devin Westland at the Chelsea Hotel over the weekend to see his work presented at Art of Fashion’s pop-up gallery showing. Westland was one of nearly 40 artists to display his work in this month’s viewing. “That’s mine over there,” Westland said pointing to a vibrant landscape of fields set ablaze beneath a quiet blue sky. “What do you think?” he asked uneasily. Westland, a young 23-year-old, is still finding his footing as an artist.

Those who are familiar with Westland’s work have compared him to Vincent Van Gogh, but Westland says what he does is very different. Not only that, but he says he wasn’t even aware of Van Gogh’s work until after he had already developed his artistic style.

Westland’s paintings are an array of colorful short brush strokes. The aesthetic is similar to Van Gogh’s later works, like The Starry Night. While Westland may or may not have been consciously influenced by Van Gogh’s work, the two artists do share other similarities.

Like Van Gogh, Westland suffers from a myriad of his own personal demons, which caused him to give up painting for several years when he was a teenager. Plagued by bipolar disorder, OCD and synesthesia, Westland sustained through a rough period during his adolescence. Unregulated by medication, the combination of psychosis and raging hormones was debilitating.

“My brain was congested with emotion,” he said.

Of the ailments that Westland has been diagnosed with, synesthesia is the one that has the most affect on his work.

“My paintings are never as colorful as the things I see in my head,” he said.

Synesthesia is a neurological condition that co-joins real information as processed through one sense with that of another. The secondary sense information is usually involuntarily imagined, but appears to the synesthete to be real. For instance, when a synesthete reads a list of numbers and letters, they may see different colors or detect a certain taste. For Westland, information appears to him in a host of colors, real and imagined. It’s Westland’s struggle to replicate these images and colors that motivates him to make more work.

Painting has also proven very therapeutic for Westland.

When he was at a very low-point during his late teens, his father suggested he start painting again as a way to express some of his inner turmoil. Slowly Westland got into the rhythm of painting every day.

“My dad helped me. Dad is like, this is therapy for you. When I painted I always felt good and calm. But I was still going through a rough period,” said Westland.

Despite a prolonged rough patch where his medications were constantly being altered, Westland managed to hit his stride in August of 2010. He’s been painting consistently ever since.

“I just realized it was good for me,” he concluded.

Westland’s work is currently on display at the Art of Fashion, a pop-up art show hosted at the Hotel Chelsea on 253 W 24th, between 7th and 8th Ave.

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