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Artist Statement:
A painting in itself is no
longer a transcendental work
of heightened reality, it is
neither an idol nor an ideal,
it is merely an attempt to
reveal existence as a reason
for existing. It is a material
justification for existence
attempting to reveal the
transitory nature of human
life ...
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Artist Exhibitions:
2009
- "World of Imagination, Vol.
2," Group Exhibition, APW
Gallery, Queens, NY
2008
- Somerville Open Studios,
Somerville, MA
2007
- Diesel Cafe, Group Exhibit,
Davis Square, Somerville, MA
- SoWa Art Walk, South Boston,
MA
- ArtsCentral, Central Square,
Cambridge, MA
2005
- The Modern - SOLO
EXHIBITION, Lansdowne Street,
Boston, MA
- Vento Chiaro Benefit ...
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Artist Galleries:
Tracy Levesque is a
self-representing artist, you
can also find her work at
www.tracylevesque.us...
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Collections:
The Casper Family
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Louis & Mary Levesque
Salem, New Hampshire, USA
Jason Dennis
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA
Julia Noulin-Merat
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Doug Brown
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Tina Levesque
Cheshire, Massachusetts, USA
Helen Levesque
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA
Michelle Doyle
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Nora Williams & Timothy Wilson
Boston, Massachusetts, ...
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Commissions:
Tina Levesque
Massachusetts, USA
Nora Williams and Timothy
Wilson
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Ferdinand and Donna Carnevale
Becket, Massachusetts, USA...
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Reviews for Tracy Lévesque:
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A Thin Line Between Beauty and the Grotesque, Local Painter relishes juxtaposition of mood, color and philosophy(Profile of the Week)
By Robin Kaminski, The Allston-Brighton Bulletin, Published: June 2, 2005
When you walk through the door of oil painter Tracy Levesque's small studio, your senses kick in - light, color and the unmistakeable smell of an oil painter at work.The finished work is everywhere, as are the spoils. Empty tubes of paint are scattered about and out of the jumble the magic of Levesque's touch ends with an expressive form of art.
The form of art which Levesque practices, called "Depressionism," falls into the category somewhere between Expressionism and Symbolism, which relies heavily on the artist's own perception of the world. Due to the intensity of the paintings, Levesque said most people either instantly love or hate her work because of the severe lines that some view as unattractive,
Since there isn't a fine line between what separates beautiful from grotesque, it is something each viewer must decide, she said. "My style of painting is somewhat like bring something to life in your own view, kind of like seeing something and spitting back out as a painting," Levesque said.
A self-taught artist, Levesque said her love of art began as a child when she watched her father, who is also a painter, create caricatures that she said had a whimsical feel to them. Upon graduating from Brandeis University, where Levesque studied english and theatre, she worked for a while as an actress, but never quite felt as passionate about acting as she did about painting. "It didn't have the same effect that painting had on me and I knew then that I wanted to be a painter," Levesque said.
Drawn to the oil form, she originally began as a traditional oil painter, but began to think something was missing from the images she was creating. "I used to paint super-realistic paintings, but I thought they were devoid of character, so I began to add more and more texture to the paintings so that it would add more character to them," Levesque said.
The paintings, each of which are lined up on the walls of her studio, seem to have a story to tell with their intense glares. If you stare at them long enough, they seem to move and sway because of the intense texture applied.
While Levesque said she primarily paints people and botanical pieces, she has dabbled in creating nude works. One of these is an expansive, powerful painting on Levesque's wall she painted in 2002 to display the seven deadly sins. Each character in the painting, which she said was used for a studio show, is masterfully created to portray a different sin.
Levesque said her work has recently been featured in the SoWa Artwalk in the South End, Allston Open Studios, South End Open Studios and the Mission Hill Open Studios, along with various exhibition since 1992.
One of the exhibitions was held at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, who Levesque said is her biggest influence. "My work has been labeled "Norman Rockwell" on crack by my friends, who always ask me how it is possible that he is my influence. I think my work is like his in a twisted way," Levesque said.
Aside from painting, Levesque said she also likes to participate in martial arts and to run. However, she is happiest when painting.
"I have to paint to feel like myself, so I paint," Levesque said.
For more information on Levesque's art work, visit her website at:
www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/t/tracylevesque
Allston Open Studios
By Taylor Reed Vecchio, The Mass Media, Published: Thursday, November 18, 2004
"your seat here is only temporary"
Ahh, Braintree St: Allston. Not a familiar street even to a former resident and frequent visitor of the neighborhood. The large building at number 119 where many artists were showing looked like an old factory building. It made me think of what Allston must have been like 15-20 years ago in the time of rent control, when the city was grittier and Allston was wasn't the product of parent's money. The artist's work mixed wonderfully in the building with piano restorers, grandparents selling bric-a-brac, and rooms filled with deliciously cheap wine.
After milling around the photographer's wing and taking in the surprisingly stunning view from the bathroom, I wandered into a room filled with the swirling oil paintings of Tracy Levesque. I was immediately drawn to her portraits made up of pleasantly ugly and oily faced souls looking right at me.
My favorite painting form the entire show was titled Last Smoke Self Portrait. With her hair messy and in her face, eyebrows raised as to ask a question, she is sucking the life out of her cigarette, which is ready and willing to ash on her shirt. I saw ugly neck muscles, bad skin, sucked in cheeks, sad eyes and chunky rings. The remarkable aspect of all of her self-portraits is that in reality, Tracy is quite an alluring person. I find it daring how she exposes herself with often disgusted and uncomfortable sentiment, which emanates from every crevice of her face.
In contrast with introspective work and other portraits, her latest project has been experimentation with landscapes. I learned later that she wanted to use landscapes to bring out the uniqueness of natural life and show its character. Before reading any of her artist statement, I immediately focused on one image Hummingbirds Foxglove. It was done in the same way as her portraits; the subject filled the lens almost overflowing it. This particular piece was just four hanging vines of long cupped flowers. I was drawn to it, drawn to it because I felt bad for the them. I thought to myself, "Wow, they look like tiny little sad faces." Yes, empathy for flowers, she got me!
Tracy is a self-taught oil painter; she looks at pictures and learns. I am sure that's why she is introspective and talented enough to truly be able to reproduce how one human (or flower) feels at an exact moment in time. Her style has been dubbed "depressionism" which is somewhere between expressionism and symbolism and, honestly, I don't think there could be a better title.
Stumbling into Miss Levesque's room was a pleasant surprise and got me excited to venture up to the seventh floor where Dan Robertson was showing. Robertson finds rough materials from places in the city you rarely go and adds anything and everything to them, let it be glued stamps or painted birdies, he makes it interesting. I love things that are layered, scratched, shellacked, found, and then changed. He does this wonderfully. I applaud anyone who can mix thick layers of paint with a Mexican smoking man and ponder the question, "On the rocks, or neat and clean?"
His Coming Home Series II work has recently been featured in the Improper Bostonian and the fancy-I-can't-afford Grotto Restaurant. This series also was awarded the Beacon Hill Art Walk's blue ribbon. Many of these pieces have little stick-figure houses you would like to call home. Avoiding too much sentiment, there is always wit in his paintings. My favorite from the series is simply called Shit House. Yes, wonderful little outhouse, moon on door, what could be better?
For more such wit, his Series I features collaborations aptly titled Wit and Wisdom. Some pieces were shown at the open studios including "a little bird told me so." Ahh, little bird on little canvas with newspaper hiding under paint sitting next to traffic signs and scribbly poetics. This series has more poetics (are you a science genius?), and better animals (snakes, pigs, goldfish and okay, more birds).
It's nice to see such versatility. Roberson uses everything from bees to martinis, only using paper to finding crap on the street and showing influences from the east and the ol' magazine.
If contrast is key, then positioning Dan Robertson next to Bren Bataclan and his smiley creatures was a great idea. If you haven't already read about the Smile Boston Project or seen his colorful friends, you should make an effort to experience them. I don't really even want to call his work paintings. It's as if he is pregnant and giving birth to these little beings with weird eyeballs in blobby shapes with hats, horns, and colorful everything because I feel like they really exist. You want them to be your best friends. You wish you were one of the lucky people who found one of his paintings in Boston and took him up on his offer that, "This painting can be yours if you promise to smile at people more often." In my room, on my wall I have a small card. He is my friend. He is a stick-figure open-mouthed globule with big teeth: I love him.
Don't get me wrong, I can be as cynical and bitter as any city-dwelling, cold-enduring northeasterner out there. Some of you may say "Okay, great, simple paintings of monsters, bright colors. This is art?" I'll spare you from divulging into a pompous explanation of what constitutes art, but I know that this project and these critters are significant. They make people happy, they were born in our beloved Boston, live in our communities and are spreading all over the country and hopefully eventually to outer space. Most importantly, they are social commentary via monsters, happy monsters. We on the east coast seem to have a reputation for bitterness and introversion, so lets live our lives thinking of slugs with eyeballs and everything can be cooler.
For more information about the Artists, visit their websites:
Tracy Levesque: http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/t/tracylevesque
Dan Robertson: www.Barkhaus.com.
Bren Bataclan (Smile Boston Project) http://bataclan.com
Agora Gallery, New York City
PRESS RELEASE
Somewhere between Expressionism and Symbolism, for Tracy Kara Levesque, lies "Depressionism." This is Levesque's unique style of painting that uses a thick black line to define shape and volume, and then fills that volume with a more abstarct "inward falling of color and shape that collapses behind a very severe outline." Her figurative imagery exploits the expressive qualities of line, and manipulates it to show contorted, agitated or broken space. This type of play with line activates her surfaces and keeps the eye moving around her painting. One could best compare her work to Egon Schiele or Edouard Munch. Yet, Levesque uses a technique that separates her work from both these artists - she surrounds the figures in her imagery with a thin, brushy field of paint that appears along the outline of her figure's profile. This interesting gesture enlivens her drawing and transitions the figures into the ground around them. In this way it symbolizes the aura of her figures. Levesque is interested in the role of the artist capturing the "aesthetics of individualism and the diverse psychology that lies behind human perception." She has studied at Brandeis and Massachusetts College of Art.
Agora Gallery Press Release, 2002
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