Basic Instinct

For artist Joshua Levensohn, Atlanta and the Olympics are his palette.

oshua Levensohn grabs a pur-
ple stuffed dinosaur from his
coffee table and fiercely hugs
it to his chest.
"This is my inspiration," the
23-year-old artist says about
the cuddly reptile, breaking
into a song from the animal's
former home at Disney
World's World of Imagination.
"This little guy is the embod-
iment of creativity exposed."
Unleashing his abundant
creative urge is easy for Fig-
ment's owner — Mr. Leven-
sohn says he simply follows
his heart and his instincts.
When waves of inspiration hit him
during college, he produced a full-
scale original musical, studied in
Europe and immersed himself in
four languages.
Last December, after six
months in Atlanta, the boisterous,
passionate artist designed and co-
ordinated an immense artistic dis-
play for the Olympics. For Mr.
Levensohn, the ultimate artistic
lifestyle means Atlanta is his
palette.
He points to a painting hang-
ing in his midtown apartment. 'To
me, art isn't just that. Art is a
whole way of life. I consider my-
self an artist because I live ac-
cording to my instincts. I pursue
the depths and realities of every-
thing that interests me."
Although he is rarely discour-
aged from pursuing his aspira-
tions, Mr. Levensohn ran into a
few walls once he moved to At-
lanta. He did not realize that a job
with the Atlanta Committee for
the Olympic Games would not
come as easily as in his dreams.
But even after an important job
never materialized and his home
was burglarized, he says he didn't
lose sight of why he moved to At-
lanta from upstate New York in
the first place.
"It didn't scare me. I just knew
this is what I had to do — go to At-
lanta and everything would hap-
pen from there," he says. "I knew
there were stories here to be told,
that I could tell in new and cre-
ative ways."

focus since then, but I'm always
stewing on something else."
Each project begins with a gut
feeling or a desire he wants to ex-
press. One of Mr. Levensohn's first
artistic inspirations in Atlanta
n retrospect, Mr. Levensohn came while working with the
says he's almost glad he didn't Georgia Olympic Training Al-
get his dream job right away. liance last year. After the orga-
Living from project to project nization asked him to design a
for a year meant he could choose display for an international con-
vention of Olympic delegates, his
his creative outlets.
"I always had to have my foot first impulse was to combine his
in at least eight doors at a time — love of children with his enthusi-
like I was an octopus or some- asm for the games, he says.
He included these themes as
thing," he laughs. "I've learned to

I

PHOTO BY CHARLES RAFSHOON

MELANIE A. LASOFF SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Following his heart: In his first six months in Atlanta, Joshua Levensohn produced a
display of the 196 National Olympic Committee flags.

the centerpiece for a 12-by-8-foot
display of all 196 National
Olympic Committee flags, titled
`The Children of Georgia Welcome
You to Our Communities." Mr.
Levensohn assigned 20 Georgia
schools a row of flags each and the
children were responsible for
drawing them and producing a
classroom flag to represent their
Olympic spirit. The immense ex-
hibit now stands in the Atlanta

Committee for the Olympic
Games offices downtown.

ike the flag exhibit, most of
Mr. Levensohn's artistic pro-
jects begin with a jolt of cre-
ative energy or inspiration.
"Art goes through a long evo-
lution into reality," Mr. LeVen-
sohn says. "It's not really change,
because even if the final product

L

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