FINE ARTS

LENIN'S LOUVRE

Although her art museum is not in Paris, this expressionist
painter from Farmington Hills is content with her spacious,
light-filled area in her home's basement.

VICTORIA BELYEU DIAZ

Special to The Jewish News

A

sk Sandra Le-
vin how long
she's been
painting, and
she'll - probably
answer, "All my life."
"From early childhood, I
knew I would be an artist,"
says the Expressionist Farm-
ington Hills painter who grew
up in Montreal. "We used to
spend our summers in the
Laurentian Mountains. I can
remember when I was a child,
standing beside an artist one
day as she set up her easel in
that scenic area, and being
enthralled. I even thought the
smell of the turpentine was
absolutely wonderful."
Though she married just
out of high school and began
raising a family shortly after,
her dream of one day becom-
ing a professional artist never
waned, she says. While caring
for daughters Donna and
Audrey, she set up an at-home
studio of sorts and painted in
spare moments.
Then, as the children grew
older, the self-taught painter
began to think seriously
about the possibility of obtin-
ing formal training in art.
"I didn't need any
assurances of success or pro-
mises of financial reward to
do this," she says. "It was
something I was certain I
wanted to do. It had always
been my dream. But I realiz-
ed then that it was still in a
dream stage, and that if it
were ever going to become a
reality, I had to go out and get
it."
Years of study at Detroit's
Center for Creative Studies,
Wayne State University,
Oakland Community College

100 FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1990

"My basement is a good place in which to work. I can be as sloppy as I want to be."

and the Birmingham-Bloom-
field Art Association followed
Levin's decision to "go out
and get it." Then, in 1972, her
work was shown at the
Michigan State Fair and,
soon after, he colorful pain-
tings began to appear in
juried exhibitions at the
Detroit Artists Market, the
Jewish Community Center's
Helen DeRoy Art Competi-
tion and others.
Since then, Levin has earn-
ed numerous prizes, and her
watercolors have been shown
extensively in the Detroit
area. Her work is a part of the
collection at Botsford
Hospital and Oakland Com-
munity College and also
hangs in private collections in
Michigan, Illinois, Florida
and Canada.
While Levin always seems
to have known exactly where
she was going in her profes-
sional life, she doesn't con-
sider herself to have arrived
just yet. Not one to rest on
laurels, she's still working
hard at her art — and at her
life as an artist.
"Being an artist means liv-
ing the contemplative
she says. "A world is revealed
if the artist is open to all he
feels and loves and desires to
retain."
Sometimes, Levin says, liv-
ing the contemplative life can
be as much of a challenge as
the art itself — especially if
the artist is a woman.
"I suppose an artist is
always frustrated," she says.
"If you're doing mundane
tasks, you feel guilty that
you're not working on your
art. And when you're working
on your art, you feel guilty
because you're neglecting
other responsibilities.
"One way I deal with that