Portland Artist Beautifies Neighborhoods with Large-Scale Murals

When someone graffitied over the center of the mural Devin Finley was creating on MLK earlier this year, the artist regarded the defacement as “a great happy accident.”

The mural, completed on March 26, depicts the Bafut Palace in Cameroon, a deceptively modest centuries-old structure in the middle of a jungle, and which has served as “the fulcrum of political power for over 400 years,” according to Finley.

Finley’s client, a professional athlete he declined to name, commissioned the work for his Cameroonian father. 

“They wanted to showcase some of the huts, the vibe of the village – the things that surround the palace,” Finley said. 

Originally, there was no obvious human presence in the painting. As Finley contemplated how best to cover the graffiti, he had an epiphany.

“Really, I wanted to come up with something to help deter whoever might do graffiti on the mural, and give them a reason not to,” Finley said. “Being that this is a place in Cameroon, I thought, what better way to paint somebody from there, which totally makes sense once I put it up on that wall, because she’s forefront, and it gives the rest of the mural context. Ok, here’s this woman, she’s from this tribe…If somebody is thinking about painting on it, they might see it and think, ‘Oh, It’s a person of color, there’s some sort of significance. If I paint on this, I don’t want to be viewed as a racist.’”

And so Finley, who is biracial, worked with reverence from a photo of a woman from a tribe in that area of Cameron. He then made significant tweaks using ProCreate software. The result is a vibrant, cinematic scene: The mural spans two entire sides of the building which meet at a curved corner, where the young Cameroonian woman is at the forefront. She looks both defiant and serene, if slightly amused. 

An Education In Street Art

Finley, 38, harbors no ill will toward the person who put graffiti on his mural. 

“I completely understand, coming from that subculture,” Finley told The Skanner. “That culture gave me my skill set as a muralist using spray paint. I’m very familiar with the name of the game. 

“I know a lot of people look down upon graffiti, because it gets kind of a bad rap, which I understand, depending on how they’re defacing property.

But graffiti can also be very, very well done.

"And there’s a clash between some street artists and graffiti artists, because graffiti artists think 'oh, this is where we paint,’ and the whole idea of gentrification comes into play. I think a lot of graffiti artists are like ‘Hey, you street artists or muralists are gentrifying this neighborhood.’ What they don’t understand is that graffiti artists painting on these abandoned buildings or run-down spots is the start of gentrification if you want to look at it that way, because then people don’t want to see it, so they’ll hire someone to come in and paint something nice. So it’s like they’re very ignorant to that fact. And I’m speaking as a graffiti artist.” 

Call To Art

Finley has no formal art training, but began exploring the graffiti medium as a kid growing up in Olympia, Wa. 

Artist Devin Finley at work.
“Typically I consider myself a reference artist, where I like to have something and I would recreate it,” Finley said. “I would look at Magic cards or X-men cards when I was a kid. One thing that drew me to graffiti was my reference was the word, it was the letters; it allowed me to use my creativity to manipulate the letters to how I wanted. And then as far as being a muralist, as I got older and painted more graffiti and did productions and painted characters, I acquired the skill set to be able to paint murals. But I didn’t decide to become a professional artist until coming up on 10 years ago, in September 2013.”

Artist Devin Finley at work.At the time, Finley was working as a maintenance director at a retirement home and competing in amateur bodybuilding events – his main creative outlet. A health scare severely limited him physically, and after being released from the hospital, Finley was told he could expect to walk maybe 10 minutes total each day.  

“I was in the prime of my life, I was 28, I was very physically fit,” Finley recalled. “And I wasn’t able to do that anymore.”

A visit to a muralist friend’s studio made him realize he could make a living with his art – after a slight attitude adjustment.

“I was just kind of young and immature and just very selfish with my artwork, as opposed to now, coming from a place of service,” Finley said.

“I had to remove an unhealthy ego to realize, ‘I can provide a service and do these things I love.’”

Finley is now married to an elementary school teacher and raising two young daughters. He juggles childcare during the week with multiple commissions for his work around the region, most of which he fulfills during the summer and school breaks.

“I’m very analytical with things, so I can look at something and break it down technically how to go about it,” he said. “And then I’m able to reproduce it. I think that’s one thing that drew me to maintenance – this water shutoff valve connects to the water supply line, the water supply line connects to underneath the faucet. And then you get an end result. That’s very much how I am approaching artwork, so that’s why being a commercial muralist, or commercial artist, really resonates well with me and it’s kind of my niche. Because it doesn’t matter what it is, I can do it.” 

Finley estimates it took him a total of five days, and 90 cans of spray paint, to complete the mural on MLK. A quick glance at his online portfolio shows how he has deftly navigated disparate styles: photo-realistic, contemporary, cartoonish, interpretive, commercial, to name a few. 

“I think murals serve a lot of different roles,” Finley said, “whether that’s inspiration, whether that’s beautification, whether it’s graffiti abatement – I think it’s kind of endless, to be honest with you.”

For more information about Finley’s work, visit www.define-arts.com.