Thank you for all the birthday wishes. What year is it? Look at my body and you can tell. “Count the rings as you would on a tree. (38!) Count the ridges on the cumulus of my skin.” What to do with all the lines on my body? Make continuous line art of course! The trailer is below. The full theatre performance of the whole journey is in production. Let’s hope we can invite you safely soon.
*quote from Jeanette Winterson’s poetic prose
Working here on #TEDx with an awesome bunch of people just like me: positive-thinking perfectionists, and it feels like a family. Due to the pandemic, the whole thing has changed locations a handful of times, tickets have been restricted/ returned, and every 3 seconds we wonder if it will even happen. Weirdly, all the uncertainty has an upside: I don’t feel so stressed! I feel just as invested in the quality of my work as I always do, but less invested in whether the event happens exactly the way expected or not. Is there a word for “I have no hope, I have no fear, I am free”?
~ Notes from rehearsal today, yet, really, a motto for life.
A flutey score keeper with a metronome meets a fluid inky improvisor, one line worker.
Will they find the balance between them in time for an audience of 6million?
#rehearsal #KalliopiBolovinou #soloflute #DELPHI #allinoneline #continuousline #singleline #art
promo code TEDXULB2020 on tickets Maison Du Bois, Vrijwilligerslaan 2, 1040 Etterbeek on OCT 22nd.
If you don’t get it yet: I am performing the trailer to my graphic novel DELPHI all in one line.
~ALL IN ONE LINE~
Kalliopi Bolovinou will join me with the classical flute.
So if I look stressed or am not making healthy food choices, I’ll just explain again: trying to birth some overthetop oeuvre over here!
See you from the TEDx stage!
Promo code TEDXULB2020 on tickets Maison Du Bois, Vrijwilligerslaan 2, 1040 Etterbeek on OCT 22nd.
A quick video, just a minute from my speech at the European Parliament’s Feminist Forum with reactions & testimonies from viewers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNNAnRnvRpI
Below you can find the text from the short video and credit to all the people involved.
Tamar Levi – Artist:
You know who these women are!
Somebody cooked your meals
Somebody wiped your bottom
Somebody cleaned your house
Everyone on these walls is someone who has worked for others
They may not be famous
They may not be familiar
But they should be celebrated.
They are the invisible labour made visible.
The style that I apply is the continuous line style I don’t lift my brush off the paper I don’t lift my pen off the paper I work in one continuous line Some journalists have called it The Single Line Method.
To me it’s about continuity.
I want to dedicate this entire collection
To my grandmother
She passed away this week…
She taught me to fight for other women
And fight for my education…
Sandra Pereira – GUENGL MEP – PCP – Portugal:
We would like to thank Tamar Levi for this exhibition.
It was really a very good idea. And it was a great contribution to the event. The event became richer because of the pictures, because of her explanation of the images. It was really really good to have you here. Thank you so much.
Ewa Espling – Politician – Activist – Sweden – Vänsterpartist:
It was absolutely the exhibition I wanted to see! And the theme of the exhibition about us women Together, and how we depend on each other It was incredibly beautiful. Went straight into my heart. Thank you!
Tamar Levi – Artist:
This is Women’s Day 2020 & “20/20” in English means “Clear Vision” So for you here today These are 20 visionary women For Women’s Day 2020 Thank you!
Video: Vasileios Katsardis/Olivier Hansen
Les Femmes et La Revolution Event Organiser: Charlotte Balavoine
Curator: Green Door Gallery
Artwork: Brush & Acrylic Black Ink, Watercolour Paper
Portrait References: Sarah Levi, Grandmother, Teacher, Union Representative Dalia Aviv Levi, Sister, Aunt Grace Ketty Cardon, School Founder & Director Bhushavali Natarajan, Parent, Friend, Eco-Fashion designer & Heritage Travel Blogger Vaia Vaena and Christina, Friend, Parent, Lawyer Linguist & The Future Meghan Sinnott, Lifelong Friend Elena Kountoura, Member of European Parliament, Parent, Former Minister of Tourism, Model & Athlete Christina Abood, Mother, Friend, Mirth-maker, Lawyer Joana Xhemali, Feminist Killjoy & Stop Gap Child Care Provider Athanasia Katsigianni Sandra Hodzic, Friend, Parent, Journalist Naomi Lee Gal Gal Porat, Cousin, Friend Dr. Vanessa Katsardi, Sister-in-Law & Professor of Engineering Aneta Safaryn, Friend & Home Keeping Support Helen O’Sullivan-Tyrrell, Artist, Friend, Curator Ahu Yigit, Parent, Friend & Photographer Margaret Joyce Sweet, First Time Great-Grandmother, Women’s Land Army (WWII) & Timber Corps Anna Giannopappa and Chryssa, “Koumbara” (Best Woman in Greek Tradition), Parent, Friend Athanasia Delistamati, Evgenia Delistamati & Tova Niovi Levi Katsardi, Cousins Reading “Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls” Dr. Bona Selimaj, Paediatric Doctor, Parent, Friend Giannoula Katsigianni, Great-Grandmother, Resistance Member, Business Enterprise Founder Eliza Sfyra, Dancer, Book Lover, Engineer, Godmother Michele Lalić, Parent, Friend, Nonprofit Professional Nina Lucija Lalić and John Larimer, The Future & Her Grandfather Beata Szypcio, Friend, Parent, House Keeper Support Silvia Anna Ratzersdorfer, Friend, Co-Author, Art Historian Sofia Sereti, Child Care Provider, Friend Mathilde Borcard, Therapist, Trauma Activist, Body Worker, Community Builder Athanasia Katsigianni, Grandmother, Mother-in-Law, Business Director Konstandinka Kouneva, Friend, Parent, Former MEP, Union Leader, Disabilities Activist Solly Elstein, Fairy Godmother, Fairy Goddaughter, Linguist, Global Citizen Sarah Ironside, Be Kind, Be Happy Eleana Ziakou, Friend, Parent, Literary Translator Efthimia Eleftheria Fotou, Friend, Child Care Support, Policy Maker
Panel Speakers:
Ewa Espling, Politician, Activist, Sweden, Vänsterpartist Sandra Pereira, Eurodeputee, Portugal, Coordinatrice FEMM pour GUE-NGL Sira Rego, Eurodeputee espagne, Vice-presidente de la GUE-NGL Saliha Boussedra, Docteure en philosophie d l’universite de Strasbourg Francoise De Smedt, deputee Bruxelloise, membre de la commission femmes du PTB Jule Goikoetxea, Professeure a l’Universite du Pays-Basque Pernando Barrena, eurodepute du Pays-Basque Pierrette Pape, directrice d’Isala, coordinatrice de #GenerationAbolition, Belgique Maite Lonne, survivante, autrice, militante, Belgique Pascale Rouges, survivante, militante, Belgique Marie Merklinger, survivante, militante, Allemagne Anne Darbes, survivante, autrice de “Le Visage de l’Autre,” France Malin Bjork, eurodeputee, Suede Anne Mejias De Haro, Juriste, syndicaliste CGT Carine Rosteleur, infirmiere, secretaire regionale CGSP sur le mouvement des “Blouses Blancs” Belgique Alba de Vincente Barbero: greve generale en Espagne le 8 mars. Oihana Etxebarrieta, membre du Parlement autonome basque Notopoulou Aikaterini SYRIZA, deputee, region de Thessalonique Irini Agathopoulou Member of Parliament, SYRIZA Concert Manou Gallo- la reine de l’Afro Groove
Due to popular demand my ‘Great Minds’ art exhibition has been extended at the Green Door Gallery (21, Rue Murillo, Brussels 1000, Belgium)!
Updated schedule:
11-4pm Today 26/3, Thursday 28/3, Friday 29/3, Saturday 30/3 and Sunday 31/3 2-6pm, as well as by private appointment by contacting the Green Door directly through their website: www.greendoorbrussels.com.
In the meantime, checkout a short clip from opening night on 22/3.
You are warmly invited to the inaugural exhibition of a new art gallery in Brussels! My artwork represented in “the smallest gallery w the most gravitas” in Brussels: THE GREEN DOOR.
I will be exhibiting my continuous single-line portraits of the greatest minds in history; philosophers, authors, poets, scientists and scholars at The Green Door Gallery.
“The human being behind the written word inspires me on a visual level! I paint a lot of Philosophers! I celebrate Poets, Activists, Feminists, Revolutionaries and Folklorists. Their characters, identities, histories. The nature of their individual natures. The condition of their human condition as they express the complexity of the human condition. These micro-level personal dynamics are undercurrents we engage with deep inside their often meta-level literature. Then, they time travel! We bring these great minds forward from history and apply their ideologies to our thinking, the macro-level application to our everyday lives. Their characters are simultaneously private and public. Private to us as their thoughts inspire our fundamental actions, thus ever contemporary and present tense. Public as deeply foundational to this world which their cultural contributions have already historically shaped. Their portraits are both solid persons, and symbolically thematic. Their image belongs on our walls as they are akin to family that have made us. We relate to them. They form our world, they are our people.”
Tamar Levi
Friday, March 22, 2019
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Opening drinks reception – please rsvp)
Saturday, March 23, 2019
12:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Saturday opening hours)
Sunday, March 24, 2019
12:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Sunday opening hours)
So far I’ve worked with my graphic novel DELPHI as:
Drawing everything in one line, whether they are continuous line comic books, portraits or landscapes, helps this crippling backtracking to perfectionism because I cannot go backwards. It has to be done in one line. THE RIGHT LINE. Similarly, one difficulty with sharing clips from my solo show: I can now see elements I’d like to change, to tweak, to polish, to perfect further. It’s very difficult to see pictures of me or my artwork or hear my performance without wanting to do it all over again, even better for you. Long story short: here is a very short video for all those loved ones and far away friends who would be here if only they could
Concept, Narration & Art: Tamar Levi
Music: Eugene Feygelson
Video: Vasileios Katsardis
Additional shots: Sandra Hodjic
Location: Clique Art, Brussels, Belgium
Date: September 15, 2018
Now I’m working on scaling it down to publication size. This is meta level stuff, thin line abstract work, to hold a narrative flow in your head and the dynamic of a single line’s movement as you move from page to page. The edge of the page is a looming cliffhanger in itself. It’s a tight-wire kind of challenge thinking about where page breaks should be in order to keep the tension in the narrative. But there’s something magnificent in the simple beauty of the varying thickness of the black line on the white page. A minimalism. A purity. Taking a line for a walk into the air.
I’m trying to place the movement of the live performance on the page in order to send to publication. My thoughts feel akin to a musician’s now as I make decisions between what magic happened live and what could go on the album for eternity. The shape of Delphi here is different to the posture I chose to illustrate on stage. Which was better? I feel like asking everyone who was in the audience before I commit. To go with the phrase “You were protected”, one shape was more womb-like but this one is more relaxing. Ugh, perfectionism strikes again.
I’ve been writing epic graphic novel DELPHI for 12 years now. Just in time for my next exhibition on Sept 15th 2018, I‘ll finally be able to get on stage to perform the first chapter live in one continuous single line painting.
For the first time ever, in a brave art-meets-music encounter, I’ll be joined on stage by i=U the Improvisation Music Festival’s founder Eugene Feygelson who will accompany my ink with his virtuosic violin. Please put this event in your calendars. I’d love you to be there.
How I broke up with crippling perfectionism: Draw in one continuous line (momentum), accept an audience (accountability), work in a team (the ball pings back & forth).
Sharing insights in advance of my (terrifyingly ambitious) art performance of my comic book all in one line, on stage, to live classical music.
In addition to my performance I will also be exhibiting some of my continuous single line drawings as well as paintings.
Clique art gallery
Rue de l’eglise 90
1150 Woluwe-Sainte-Pierre
Like all the books in the award winning Philosophy Foundation Book Series, this edition is a beautiful hardback book with content that is tried and tested in the classroom.
Provocations is a set of philosophy sessions designed for secondary school and predicated on pedagogical methods. These sessions are mature and challenging, exploring (amongst other things), Wagner and desire, Shakespeare and madness, Joan of Arc and gender, Faust and temptation, Nostradamus and time. They span the curriculum and provide an opportunity for teachers across a range of subjects to introduce a philosophical approach to their lessons. There are tips and suggestions throughout on how to use the book in the classroom. There is also an extensive reading list for those who wish to explore the topics in greater depth, as well as an introduction to basic logic and guidelines to help students write their own sessions.
Author: David Birch. Illustrator: Tamar Levi.
Provocations was shortlisted for the Educational Resources Award 2015 in the Secondary non-ICT section.
Review of Provocations by Michelle Sowey of The Philosophy Club
Review of Provocations by TDRE (Andy Lewis)
Review of Provocations by UKEDCHAT
BUY
£14.99You can buy this book directly from The Philosophy Foundation
Or on Amazon
What’s your main style?
I have two styles of drawing: in colour, I take a felt tip marker approach. In black and white, it’s pen and inking all the way.
No, not what tools, what style?
Well, I most enjoy drawing an entire portrait in one line. One single permanent pen and ink line. No pencils. No erasers. No mistakes. I just let go and allow the fluid motion of the ink to mirror the motion in the shape of the form.
Picasso made a series of single line drawings. Klee called drawing “taking a line for a walk.” Steinberg explored the properties of the single line too.
Are your single line drawings just like Picasso’s?
I’m not sure if Picasso did it this way, but I try not to look at the paper, almost entirely at the model or scene.
Do you know of any others who specialise this way?
No. I’ve never heard of it.
Well if you do, please let me know. I’m talking to curators about pulling together a small gallery of pieces that work within the method. Plus, I’m working really hard on trying to say no to illustration projects that want me to work in any other style. It’s hard to say no when you’re an early career illustrator, but it’s the core of my current pet project so I kind of want to make it my sole focus at the moment.
What’s the project?
I aim to illustrate my graphic novel, Delphi, entirely in one line. One pen and ink blind contour continuous single line that journeys through the whole book. If I can gather together my talented musician and animation friends I might just be able to make this thing an all singing all dancing kind of event.
How far along are you?
The graphic novel manuscript is researched, written and edited. The images and characterisation are developed and collated. The musicians and animators are on board. Final step: illustrate it. And I’m so excited! Looking back at old sketchbooks I’m realising now, it looks like it just might be my default illustration style. Do you know what I mean by that? Like, your default dance move. One motion that you use to connect to the scene around you. Then you build up from there. Maybe in comedy they’d be called one liners. Maybe in art my drawings should be called one liners too!
***
I thought I’d put this informal interview up on my blog to signpost my interest in the style to the wide world of webbers. I’m writing here in the hope the internet will help ask around to see if anyone else is working in this style.
So anyone out there drawing their own one liners please do send me jpegs of your work via the contact page on my website and I’ll put them up, credit the illustrator and link to their contact pages. Hopefully, if investment follows through, you’ll be on speed dial to hang your framed pieces somewhere pretty too. I admire every artist exercising this continuous line method. There’s something steadying about the confidence it takes. Something cathartic about both the continuity and the completed circle. I think the world would do well to have a lovely little gallery that takes them on a cathartic journey, in one line.
-T-
Contact: contact@tamarlevi.com