Fiction Fix literary Journal

Devin Balara was born on Halloween night in 1988 in the city of Tampa, FL. Raised as an only child with a single mother, Devin had a good amount of time alone with her imagination. Her earliest creative moments were spent finger painting in a plastic pool in the living room, learning to draw whales and elephants with her grandfather, and collecting strange rocks, shells and wood pieces from around her neighborhood.

Throughout grade school in Tampa, Devin was passionate about music and excelled at playing both the bass clarinet and tenor saxophone. She received a number of awards in both Hillsborough County and the State of Florida. In High School she was on the dance team for three years and received recognition at a number of competitions across the state. She always found herself drawing and assembling collections of small pieces, but art was not a true passion until she moved to Jacksonville, FL to attend the University of North Florida.

Initially enrolled as a psychology major, Devin soon discovered that the art world offered an incredible combination of psychology, music, movement, introspection, science, and all of the things which she had found interest in throughout her life. She also found that her close community of artistic friends offered constant inspiration and collaborative opportunities. Devin found her true niche in the sculpture department at UNF, inspired by the intense process of welding and manipulating metal. Painting also became a passion of hers, finger painting in particular, because of the relaxation it offered in contrast to the hot, dirty and dangerous lifestyle of a sculptor. The challenge of that lifestlye and the community aspect of making objects large and small led Devin to choose sculpture as her major concentration. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the Spring of 2010 with her sights set on traveling the country and pursuing a Master's Degree outside of Florida.

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