Devin Fan

Bio:

I’m an artist, poet and community worker from Meaford, Ontario, and am represented by Allison Remcheck at Stimola Literary Studio. I moved to Meaford a year ago with my wife Sarah and 3 children – Napoleon, Ronin and Juliette. We love it here. I created my first children’s book – The Barnabus Project – with my brothers, Terry and Eric Fan. The Barnabus Project was named by CBC Books as the best Canadian Picture Book of 2020 and was the winner of the Governor General’s Award for young people’s literature. Our new book, Barnaby Unboxed, is coming out in the Fall of 2024. In addition to children’s book illustration, I also create art for its own sake. Most of those pieces focus on images from dreams and the Spirit World. 

Below are some examples of my work. Click on the image to see the full image:

inspiration:

Right now I’m working on a translation of the Tao Te Ching, a Taoist philosophical work written by Lao Tzu over 2,000 years ago. That little book of mysterious, enigmatic text has been a source of inspiration for me my whole life. My dad, who I lost last year, spent countless hours with me over my life discussing and debating the meaning of the text, so working on it now also feels like having a conversation with him.

The most exciting thing:

I’ve done many exciting things in my life! I survived getting hit by a giant fireball and getting electrocuted, I organized and fought in secret Kung Fu matches, and was thrown through the air by a Russian Olympic wrestler. But the most exciting, spellbinding and transformative thing I ever did was having children. Nothing in this world will prepare you for the feeling of holding your first baby in your arms, and nothing can compare to it.

favourite adjective:

It changes with the weather but my new favourite adjective is Numinous. It describes something awe-inspiring, supernatural, steeped in mystery.

qualities of a life fully lived:

That’s a great question. During our life, from beginning to end, our actions touch innumerable lives. Big actions, like marriage or murdering someone, small gestures like holding a door for someone or smiling at them, or planting a tree. All these things are like endless and intersecting ripples in a pond. If you want to live forever, you have your wish! We live on forever in the love that we show others, which in turn gives them a store of love to pass on, or the opposite. Science has recently shown that trauma can be passed on through our genes. Don’t you think love and joy and wonder can also be passed on? Of course they can. Not just for one generation but forever, depending on the choices our great grandchildren make. So to me the qualities of a life well lived are determined by the ripples that it leaves behind.