We were lucky to catch up with Lisa Levine recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lisa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

In general, I find creating work for public art commissions to be very meaningful. I think it is important for people to have opportunities to engage with art as part of their daily life experience. As Picasso said, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Public art can inspire reflection, contemplation, and be the impetus for dialogue and connection between people within the everyday experience. This is one of the true benefits that come from the percent for art programs. Some of the most meaningful projects I have worked on are ones where I have created art for health care environments. There is an increasing amount of evidence based research that suggests that art can have a profound affect on both the physical and mental states of people who are dealing with the stresses of health issues. This is true for both patients and their families. One of the most meaningful projects of this nature that I worked on was creating two large scale works for the Children’s Hospital at Stanford University. My former partner and I were honored to be commissioned to create two works that span the entire length of the cafeteria. One of the pieces, Where We Get Our Food, had an educational as well as aesthetic purpose. The other visually complex work had an interactive component which performed as a welcome and playful diversion for patients and their families.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For many years my kitchen or bathroom would double as a darkroom. Today I have come out of the dark and work mostly with digital photography. The wide variety of printing processes available to digital photographers today have allowed us to compete for public art commissions that were out of reach in the past. Scale is no longer a hindrance. Works can be produced at scales and in materials unimaginable to photographers a few decades ago. In my work for pubic art commissions I use a multiple-image collage style to visually describe and characterize landscape, community, and public spaces. Much of my work has been dedicated to uniquely portraying the diversity and distinctiveness of place. I have been working on a photo collage based approach that offers an exciting and inventive interpretation of the photographic document. I love the challenge of crafting work and problem solving for public art projects and I am especially interested in site-specific projects that allow me to portray a unique, multi-dimensional perspective of communities where the artwork reaches audiences outside conventional art venues and makes art a part of peoples’ everyday experience. My work portrays the lively nature, movement, history, and culture of communities. It helps to establish a bold, fun, colorful, and informative portrayal of the lifestyles within particular locales, all to serve as a positive galvanizing presence for the community. My works center on promoting a familiar sense of place, drawing the imagery directly from the surrounding areas where the artwork will reside. This gives the works a distinctive, yet familiar identity, portraying the kinds of visual experiences one might encounter in these surroundings. I think that such artwork helps to instill a sense of civic pride and ownership for stakeholders.
My approach unites multiple imagery into an aesthetically imaginative form. This approach allows me to uniquely celebrate the distinctive character and landscape of an area from several viewpoints. The work is fundamentally about discovery; what I come upon during my research about a specific area and what I learn about the idiosyncrasies defining particular public spaces from my photographic wanderings. Most importantly, I find that viewers can share in my discovery process and return to the work over and over again to locate the familiar while they enjoy finding new details and references.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think that if you are an artist who has continued to make art over the course of several decades or more you invariably have learned the art of accepting rejection. I think a lot of people who are not artists may look upon the successes of certain artists (working in any art form, not just the visual arts) and have little idea of the level of rejection most artists have endured and persisted through before they have been recognized. They may not be able to understand that an artist can be driven to do what they do, sometimes over the course of an entire lifetime, without being celebrated. Rejection is an inevitable reality throughout an artists’ career and you just learn to keep working regardless.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I was very excited about NFT’s back in 2021. I had several NFT’s minted and sold them all. I thought that they might become an integral part of a new art market. Today I’m not so sure. The interest in them has died down quite a bit. I’m hopeful that the market will come back.       

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lisalevinephoto.com
• Instagram: @LisaLevinePhoto
• Facebook: Lisa Levine Photography
• Linkedin: LIsa Levine artist/educator
• Twitter: @LisaLevinePhoto