let. Her husband, Jordan, a fitness trainer
and motivational speaker, owned CrossFit
Bloomfield, and Levin soon found that it
was her own golden ticket to overcoming
her distaste for sweating and achieving
mental and physical empowerment. She
became a trainer at and co-owner of
CrossFit as well as a yoga instructor.
“I thought, ‘I’m a coach, this is what I
am now,
’” Levin says.
But she didn’t realize how much she
missed her first passion.
BACK TO FIRST LOVE
Before the COVID pandemic hit, Levin
had already made a conscious return to
art, painting abstracts, portraits (of people
and of pets) and baby gifts (like wooden
rocking chairs). But when forced into
quarantine, Levin realized something.
“When the pandemic hit, like many peo-
ple, I had time. And I thought, ‘If I’m
going to live like a hermit inside my home,
I need color and joy,
’” Levin says. “Outside,
it was misery. Inside, I wanted my home to
be rainbows and kittens.
”
The mostly white interiors of the
Commerce home she shares with Jordan
was just a blank canvas waiting to happen.
Standing in front of a pair of French doors
one day, Jordan came across his wife just
staring.
“He knew I was up to something,
” Levin
says. “He could see the wheels turning. He
said, ‘You want to paint those, don’t you?’”
Levin set to work on the French doors,
“IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING YOU’RE
PASSIONATE ABOUT, FIND A WAY TO DO IT.”
— HILLARY LEVIN
continued on page 32
Levin transformed
a garden flamingo
into a hand-painted
indoor work of art.
The acrylic-painted
French doors were Levin’s
first “living art” project.
A free-hand
painted coat
closet
APRIL 22 • 2021 | 31