Devenish Press
Authors and Artists
Tom Quinn Kumpf
Molly Davis
Tom Quinn Kumpf grew up in a mixed, working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served with the US Navy in Vietnam and has since been deeply involved in conflict resolution and veterans' issues. He was part of a delegation of Vietnam veterans to visit the former Soviet Union, working with Soviet veterans of the war in Afghanistan, and has worked in many other areas of conflict in the world.
He is an internationally recognized, award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in numerous publications and in exhibitions throughout the US, Europe, and the former USSR. He works primarily in documentary, travel, and portrait photography and serves as a consultant for photo projects and exhibitions. He currently lives in New Mexico.
For as long as I remember, having a brush in my hand has given me the greatest pleasure. I also paint for the sheer joy of expressing the many subtle changes I see in the light at sunrise and sunset, and the multitude of colors I find in nature that constantly inspire me to interpret them in paint.
I generally work in watercolor and oil, with about half of my time spent painting outdoors. Painting in nature revitalizes me. Because the light changes from one section of the country to the next I take annual trips across the United States and abroad to study and paint.
I work every day, painting and studying with artists. I believe that drawing and the fundamentals of painting must be learned before you can become a complete artist.
Bob Murray
Helen Gene Nichols
Canadian by birth (Kingston, Ontario), Bob Murray has lived mostly in the U.S. since crossing the border to attend Cornell University and play college hockey in 1970. After graduation and a brief minor-league professional hockey career, he has worked most frequently in teaching roles—high school teacher, college instructor, music teacher, writing teacher, dream analyst.
Bob earned an MFA in Writing degree from Vermont College in 1994. A longtime singer-songwriter, a total of four albums with all-original tunes have been recorded. In 2010, North of Eden Press published a collection of his personal essays entitled A Chicken Hawk Comes Home. Recent poems have been published by Lascaux Review and Wordrunner.
Three years ago, Bob and his wife moved to Taos, New Mexico from Montpelier, Vermont.
David Douglas
David Douglas has been taking photographs since 1967. With his camera, he traveled the world and lived in Ethiopia as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Since moving to New Mexico from New York in 1988, he has dedicated himself to capturing New Mexico’s spirit and unmatched beauty.
David’s photographs evoke a thought-provoking, often soulful response. He is inspired by the art, culture, history, and people passing through his heart to his lens. David’s photographs are included in private collections in New Mexico, Colorado, California, New York, Texas, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and the Netherlands.
It would be a lie if I didn’t describe my work as a compulsion.
Seeing a detail in any ‘something’ that raises a hair on my neck (for any reason), I will
quickly draw it out (index cards are in my shoulder bag) for later. In the end, that work may not tell anyone just what that detail was, but you might feel a familiarity.
Rarely knowing how things will turn out is the best place to be (otherwise it’s boring and restricting), but there is an inner ‘road map’ or ‘serving suggestion’ in the process that takes me to a ‘likelihood of happy’. Much of that came from my experiences in printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute.
John Call
John D. Call was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1943 and grew up there. He began writing poetry seriously in 1981. Much of his inspiration comes from his years of working with people and their relationships, as well as his love of nature, travel, and family. He believes that his diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease in 2006 has deepened his understanding of the human condition and, thus, has enriched his poetry.
John and his wife, Wanda, continue to reside in the Dallas area where he enjoys spending time with family, traveling, roasting his own coffee and, of course, writing poetry.