Meet Robert Devine | Special Effects Artist & Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Robert Devine and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Robert, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I have always liked to make things. Fortuitous opportunities have come in many ways to set me on my path. First were my mother and father, Mary Ann and Glen Devine, raising me in a loving art family, Then came a patron- Madelyn Fiorito Jones, who asked me to create an original fountain for her home. This set me on my path to being freelance instead of an hourly employee. Next was a workspace to create things in. My friend, Alberto Revilla, and I created a lot of art molds working free lance and out of our garages. Alberto suggested we get a professional studio to work in. He had a wife, two kids and lots of bills to pay, and I asked him if he wanted another monthly bill to pay for a studio. He replied of course not, and I suggested what we really needed was steady work to pay for the studio. Just a week later, I kid you not, we met a woman, Altina Miranda, who hired us to make dozens of molds and art benches for her. The beginning was sheer good luck and getting the studio going entailed years of hard work. The best thing that happened to me was recently meeting the creative powerhouse, filmmaker, musician, artist Jeremiah Hammerling. From the start we have had a magical, creative connection. We have teamed up to begin creating music videos of his songs that are all part of a complex episodic series we are creating, combining science, spirituality, humor, and special effects in a genre we call hardcore sitcom. Our first music video, Creature, just came out on Vevo. Our second video, Copilot, has already won eight film festival awards and will be on Vevo soon. We are working on our third music video, Cancel My Funeral. Creature can be found at- www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ8RWQhOuoA

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I create custom animatronic and mechanical puppets and costumes of animals, people, and aliens. Every new job is exciting. My enthusiasm is my super power, coupled with my skills and experience. My path to being an artist was pretty simple. My parents were artists and I grew up steeped in art, thought every other kid created art too, then learned they did not. My parents taught me to be a creator instead of simply a consumer. Being an artist meant that if I want something, I can make it instead of working and trading 40 hours of my life every week to buy it. Hollywood is a huge industry, covering movies, music videos, commercials, and events, but at the same time, it is also a small community. You become known for the kind of work and the ethics you bring to your work. A businessman can be tempted to compromise their work in order to increase profit, whereas an artist will not be so easily tempted to compromise their work. We are generally driven to create the best work we can. In a sense, the art we create is an artist’s real payoff. I tell my clients that I like flying, and they bring me rocket fuel. Each project is a challenge to see how much higher I can go, how much greater I can perfect my art. An old Egyptian hieroglyph was translated to say, “No limit may be set to art, neither is there any artist who is fully a master of their art.” The quality of work an artist creates, and the ways they interact with their clients, create the artist’s reputation and how they are perceived within their community. I always do my utmost to create the best work I can, also as a way to let my clients know that I am on their team, and also as a way to thank them for choosing to work with me. Members of my shop always thought that I must have some relatives in the industry who send me all these great jobs. The truth could not be further from that- I grew up fairly poor, and it is my reputation, my solid network of happy clients, and my track record within the community that has brought good projects to me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
It is hard to even begin to cover this. California is an incredible state. And Los Angeles is an amazing, sprawling and incredibly mysterious city. Even though I grew up here, I have to do a bit of studying and digging for a place like LA to divulge its riches. I grew up on the beach, so I always recommend going to the beaches here. The air is fresh at the beach. People are usually in much less of a hurry than in the city so it is much easier to start up a conversation with them. Griffith park is a great place to visit and hike in. There is also a horse stable, Sunset Stables, up at the top of Beachwood Drive where you can rent a horse and watch the sun set as you ride through Griffith Park from Hollywood over to the valley side, then ride back by starlight. Surrounded by southern California wilderness, with the smell of sagebrush in your nostrils, for most of the trip you will not be able to believe that you are in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world. There are so may beautiful buildings to see and enjoy, from the Frank Geary Disney music hall, to much older Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and also the Bradbury building. There is great food to be eaten while watching the city life parade by, in LA’s oldest street, Olvera street. or down on the Boardwalk in Venice beach. There are great public gardens, like Descanso and the Huntington gardens, as well as lots of great art to be seen here too, in both the Getty museum,, the Norton Simon museum, MOCA, the LA County Museum of Art, and the Broad museum.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Sure. My artist parents -mother, Mary Ann Devine, and my father, Glen Devine- are the most important influences on my success. They set me on the art path. and taught me that I can make things. Outside of family, I would name Madelyn Fiorito Jones, bless her. She was the patron who hired me to create an original art fountain for her and set me on my path as an independent artist.

Website: https://www.anatomorphex.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Anatomorphex