Baltimore artist Oletha DeVane references Buddhism, the Bible, Greek mythology and Haitian Vodou in her eclectic works. Her multimedia exhibit Traces of the Spirit can be experienced at the Baltimore Museum of Art through October 20. Photo by Mitro Hood

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At age 15, Oletha DeVane accompanied her mother to her job at an agricultural research center in Maryland. When one of the doctoral students there learned that DeVane was artistic, she was hired to draw various insects the lab was studying.

Over the next 50-plus years, DeVane continued her artistic growth, exploring universal spirituality through multimedia art, while also drawing inspiration from the African diaspora.

“My whole life has been centered around art making and art — whether I was doing arts administration, working as an artist or teaching,” DeVane said.

Some of her most recent works are on display in a solo installation, “Traces of the Spirit,” on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Spring House, located on the west lawn behind the museum’s contemporary wing.

In addition to her mother’s inspiration, DeVane credits her father for her career in the arts. To introduce her to painting and drawing, her father would take her to the BMA on weekends, particularly to see works by African American artists.

“My dad was one of the first people to introduce me to the notion that there were black artists out there working diligently,” she said.

DeVane set her sights on art school, attending the Maryland Institute College of Art on a scholarship. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts there, she went on to the University of Massachusetts Amherst to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Painting.

DeVane, a painter, printmaker, sculptor and video artist, worked as a teacher. Later, she was promoted to director of the McDonagh School, a private college preparatory, in Owings Mills. Currently, she serves as the head of its Tuttle Gallery.

Gallery was part of plantation

Her solo exhibition at the BMA will be displayed in its Spring House, a former dairy from the estate of Senator Robert Goodloe Harper, built around 1812. The estate was known to have enslaved 27 people.

“I really wanted to be able to put that installation in that space, and that’s where it ended up,” DeVane said. “There’s a strong historical component to it.”

The show’s five sculptures came from a preexisting series titled Spirit Sculptures. These works integrate themes of light, water and reflective surfaces through the use of beads, sequins and mirrors.

Many of the materials used in her sculptures were either found by DeVane or given to her by friends. One piece incorporates stones that her daughter gave her after DeVane admired them.

“I really think of her as a collector,” explained Virginia Anderson, curator of American Art. “She collects all of these materials and combines them to make her spirit sculptures. In a way, they’re sort of autobiographical, but the narratives are universalized as well.”

The sound of ocean waves plays in the background of the space. The audio recording of the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Haiti was made by her son Christopher Kojzar’s Baltimore-based collective strikeWare.

“Water, in so many cultures, is about change and the spiritual things that happen,” said DeVane. She also wanted to incorporate the sound of the ocean to allude to the ocean voyage that enslaved Africans were forced to take.

Global spirituality

In her travels to Haiti, South Africa and Thailand, DeVane has studied various spiritual practices of the regions.

“I’m always curious about how people worship,” she said. “It’s like climbing up a mountain, right? We’re all climbing up different sides, but we’re all reaching for the same pinnacle….We’re all part of the same journey.”

DeVane’s art also examines the cultural significance of the African diaspora.

“There’s something significant about looking at the African culture, particularly at how it migrated through the transatlantic slave process to various parts of the world and maintained a kind of core, a spirituality,” DeVane said. “That’s what’s of interest to me.”

Next, DeVane hopes to create larger sculptural pieces than she has made in the past. But she wants to keep her focus on the communities within Howard County and Baltimore.

“Baltimore is possibly one of the most vibrant places for artists,” DeVane said. In this area, she said, “artists support each other…in a way that I think is vital.”

Oletha DeVane’s installation “Traces of the Spirit” is on view at The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Spring House until October 20. The museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and admission is free. For more information, visit artbma.org or call (443) 573-1700.