{"id":31602,"date":"2016-01-13T00:45:54","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T06:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=31602"},"modified":"2018-10-09T14:46:54","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T20:46:54","slug":"processing-process-randee-levine-at-phillips-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/processing-process-randee-levine-at-phillips-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Processing Process: Randee Levine at Phillips Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Randee Levine at work in her Salt Lake City studio. Photo by Portia Snow<\/p><\/div>\n

With Randee Levine it is hard to tell what comes first, philosophy or art. Levine\u2019s art is an extension of herself, a physical manifestation of the psychological process and understanding that has brought meaning and awareness to her personal life, and has become central to her professional life as well. In an exhibit that opens this month at Phillips\u2019 Dibble Gallery, Levine is showing more than 10 major works in which she reaches a congruence of psychological being and artistic form infused with expressive process.<\/p>\n

Levine grew up in the Bronx and Yonkers, the child of first- generation parents from a Jewish Russian background. She studied fine art at State University of New York at Purchase, followed by the standard struggling artist stint in NYC: she waited tables, sang in bands and did visual research for designers. She also met Tully Cathey, a musician who had ties to Utah. \u201cWe decided we didn\u2019t want to stay in New York; he had some connections here because his parents were \u2018transplants.\u2019\u00a0 We decided to move here, it was great here, and developing the connections, and the gigs that I got,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In the mid-1980s the couple had a brief stint in Los Angeles, where Levine worked at celebrity photography, but ultimately they returned to Salt Lake City. She realized she does better in a more relaxed environment. \u201cComing back from LA and going to a therapist here for my own personal needs, I discovered something called \u2018process oriented psychology.\u2019\u00a0 This affects both personally and professionally the way I view the world and my life.\u201d Describing herself as a \u201cfacilitator and teacher of Process Work,\u201d that was founded by Dr. Arnold Mindell, she says she uses the practice to work professionally with individuals as well as to consult with organizations. And with colleague Jan Dworkin, from Portland, Oregon, she founded a business called 361ArtWorks, to use Process Work and the arts \u201cto facilitate conflict resolution and organizational change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProcess Work is not traditional psychology, it has a strong Eastern Asian philosophical bent; it draws out of Jungian psychology,\u201d she explains.\u00a0 \u201cThe whole idea is that it’s potential oriented, that everything we experience that is troubling or disturbing has the seed for potential growth. I like to make a distinction between New Age thinking and Process Work.\u00a0 We don\u2019t invite things into our lives but face those disturbances. \u00a0For example, if you are depressed, we don\u2019t prescribe something for depression, we discover the meaningfulness of that depression and doing that often relieves the symptom.\u00a0 Things manifest as disturbances, but if we can become congruent with these things, they flow more easily,\u201d she says concertedly.<\/p>\n

This approach to life carries over into Levine\u2019s art. The artist works out of a studio in her house in Salt Lake City\u2019s Marmalade district, a home she shares with her partner Christopher Brunelli, a songwriter and musician (she and Cathey have since divorced), and his son Dante. Her works are colorful and expressive, delving into both abstraction and introspective figurative work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that showing things that aren\u2019t always exposed is part of my psychology and who I am,\u201d she says of her art. \u201cI tend to be an expressive and authentic person who shows things that others might be shyer about, something that might be reflected.\u00a0 This is getting along with what is<\/em> actually and not trying to cover things up and make them different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levine\u2019s standard, medium-scale canvases are the kind that exude a symbolic intensity. Color, shape and scale all relate in powerful formal ways, to create works with a meaningful presence that engage the viewer and encourage a search for understanding. For example, in \u201cJosie with Me,\u201d the prominent yet simplified figure is both specific\u2014a portrait of the artist, her curly hair evident, and her pet dog\u2014and a more general symbol of female gender, the gestural breasts, prominently high just below the neck, seen as cones protruding\u2014definitive, provocative symbols that may confront personal symbolic meanings and powerful metaphors.<\/p>\n

In 1945, Jackson Pollock (who underwent Jungian psychotherapy during 1938-42) painted a series of \u201cTotem\u201d paintings, semi-figural works that find a strong parallel in Levine\u2019s work. Pollock had a long-running interest with Surrealism, and the abundance of meaning that can be read on a subconscious level, with parts to the whole and emphasis given from part to part with symbolic awareness.\u00a0 This is very much like the work of Levine, whose painting is based on process and the processing that renders totem-like figures.<\/p>\n