is to allocate whole days just
for painting. I find that, for
me, it's very difficult to frag-
ment the day, splitting it bet-
ween housework and other
tasks, and painting. To paint,
I must have large blocks of
time.
"So I set aside 'art days'
when I don't do anything else.
The first thing in the morn-
ing on those days I go straight
to my work area. Sometimes,
I don't even make my bed. Do-
ing it this way is like giving
myself permission to paint."
Though Levin now paints in
a spacious, light filled area in

"My studio was in
a warehouse, and
someone got
mugged there .

her home's basement, she us-
ed to rent a studio.
"There was such a freedom
about that," she says. "Even
the driving time was such a
wonderful kind of transition.
I'd go there — it was in Pon-
tiac — three days a week and,
even though it was often cold
in my work area, when things
were flowing it was
wonderful.
"But it wasn't a really great
area. My studio was in a
warehouse, and someone got
mugged there eventually and,
after that, I just wasn't com-
fortable there anymore. So, I
left.
"There are drawbacks to
working away from home.
Often, when I'm working on
a painting, I find myself want-
ing to go back to it at all
hours of the day. And, of
course, you can't easily do
that if it's miles away.
"My basement is a good
place in which to work. I can

be as sloppy as I want to be."
Levin is concentrating on a
group of colorful sketches
she's put together during the
many nature walks she takes
throughout the year. Her
work, she says, with its recur-
rent nature themes, is in-
fluenced by the Canadian
Group of Seven — Expres-
sionist landscape painters
who worked during the first
half of the century.
Her paintings, some of
which hang at the Ariana
Gallery in Birmingham,
Signature Arts in Troy and
the Posner Gallery in Farm-
ington Hills, also reveal
Levin's preoccupation with
color and color harmonies.
Though the predominating
mauves, pinks, blues, violets,
greens and yellows are never
violent, they are highly
dramatic and always careful-
ly chosen.
Painting usually from an
original sketch — sometimes
detailed, sometimes made up
of only three or four lines —
Levin calls herself a "think-
ing painter."
"Art making is research,
selection, a combination of
thinking and intuition and a
continuous dialogue with art
history and with the times in
which we live," she says. "Art
must exist in the context of
art history. It should tell
about the time and place in
which it was created and
reveal something about the
artists' concerns."
One of the high points in
her career came a couple of
years ago when one of Levin's
paintings was selected by the
Detroit Institute of Arts
modern arts curator as part of
the Detroit Artists Market
exhibition.
"That was really a coup for

me," she says of the event. A
lot of artists competed in that
show, and it was so reassuring
to have my work selected.
"I was reminded of (the late
actress) Ruth Gordon. She
was 84 when she received an
Academy Award, I think, and,
in her acceptance speech, she
said, 'This is so encourag-
ing!'
In her studio, surrounded
by paintpots, easels, sketch
books, art books and
magazines, paintings and
brushes, Levin is beginning
to prepare for her next show,
"Women in Art," an exhibi-
tion at the Jewish Communi-
ty Center, Feb. 3-11.
"Painting, for me, is the
great adventure," she says.
Reality is but a point of depar-
ture." ❑

Levin creates her latest work.

"A world is revealed if the artist is open to all he feels and loves and desires to retain."

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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