2013 FELLOW!

My endless gratitude to the Community Partnership for the Arts and Culture, for the 2013 Creative Workforce Fellowship! And to Cuyahoga Arts and Culture for making this possible. It has been life-changing for me already.These generous fellowships are awarded to area artists to further their artistic/professional/life pursuits.

Absolutely rare...and thrilling!

Please visit their sites to learn more:

http://www.cultureforward.org/Our-Programs/Fellowship

http://www.cacgrants.org/

A NIGHT AT THE EMMYS!

More Than Ink from Andrea Levy on Vimeo.

WOE IS TEEN

Recent New York Time's HOME section cover about parents' concerns about their kids and pornography online.

Rememberance

When my editors at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland alerted me to the fact that I would be making the special section cover for the September 11, ten-year anniversary, I knew it was going to impossible to say enough in any single image. After a couple months of thinking, pages of notes, a lot of sketching, and hours of soul-searching, I ended up with the simplest of images. I dipped my own hands in a can of black paint and wiped them down the back of a piece of cardboard in my studio. As I said in the words that were published with this art, "No buildings, no flags, no planes, just the human toll."  I told my editors that the illustration took 2 minutes.......(ten years, two months, and two minutes, that is!)

I am proud to say it was selected as a SPD cover of the day:

Remarkably, it got some international attention as well.

Here from Qintatinta.com:

Also, big thanks to Charles Apple, and his big work taking a look at 9/11 pages that day. Thanks, Charles for your shout out:  http://apple.copydesk.org/2011/09/11/a-look-at-todays-911-anniversary-newspaper-visuals/

Sleepy

Nearly everyone I know has been coerced by me to pose for an illustration. Tim Feran, Columbus Dispatch, writer-extraordinaire, is no exception. I worked with New York Times Art director, Ken McFarlin on this HOME cover. The topic was about how the same materials that are being used in sports products are being used in bedding. Here is a grab of the illo online.

More Voice

Another recent cover for the Village Voice focused on Michele Bachmann. Another chance to work with the wonderful John Dixon. The image was print cover, here it is online.

Village Voice cover about politician Rick Lazio.

Working with art director John Dixon was terrific.

Junk

This Washington Post Sunday Magazine cover was incredibly satisfying to complete.The art accompanied an essay by Post writer Michael Rosenwald, addressing his concerns about his tendency to collect junk. Ironically, his concerns about himself became mine about myself as I began gathering and hauling all sorts of stuff (frankly, a lot of it was already in my car) to my studio. Ha! The prep work on this was harder than the illustration itself, although this project did require a giant amount of shooting and editing. And now? Back to the studio to clean it all up!

This is the inside opener for the WP story. The face is actually Michael Rosenwald taken from a studio shot the Post supplied to me. All the rest was created from shots at my studio (hand and all). It was a great challenge to try to match the light on his face as I shot the rest of the scene, hoping to create something believable.

Chain Gang

I recently did two illustrations for the Wall Street Journal. The topic was "What's holding back women entrepreneurs?" This is actually the secondary image that ran inside, but I really liked the simplicity of it. I'm often aiming to distill symbols in an illustration to gain impact. So it was only after I had finished the art that I realized the combination of these two objects might actually prove provocative to some. I never got the chance to ask if that observation entered into the editors' design discussions or decisions on this project, but I'd be curious to know.

I've been bus(y)

I felt a little creepy as essentially I stalked school buses one busy morning. It's not easy to chase along behind one when you spot it. And then there's shooting with a long lens from the car. But I was on deadline and needed a shot. Well in the end it all turned out great. I wasn't arrested, and working with the people at the American School Board Journal was a pleasure from start to finish.

Ho Ho Ho

WOW! This HOME cover for The New York Times was a crazy scene to create! But the models were just wonderful. We all had an amazing time.

I always knew Ben Rossi was a tough guy, because I used to train with him. So when I needed a strong body for an assignment on the effects of stress, I called Ben. Often when I can't hire a model, I cajole my friends, co-workers, family members and even strangers into being subjects in my art. After I explain my idea to them, and they finally stop laughing, the real work begins. Well, Ben understood exactly what I was trying to do with the assignment. He worked incredibly hard and made it a lot of fun. Much more fun than his workouts by a long shot! But seriously, it's not everyone that would be comfortable with the whole process or with that image I made. Thanks, Ben.