Harry Levene

Slake My Thirst IV

Indian Ink on 112gsm cartridge paper; digital typeset
2024

Willingly At Sea

Between death and suicide there’s another state

Beyond grief or anger, hard to articulate…

One foot before the other, walking but standing still,

Sitting by the window, taking another pill.

Nothing to consider, nothing to relate

Just a vacancy and naught to contemplate.

No one else is listening, no one else is here

But comforters, gathered ‘round who fail to endear.

Well-meant words of sympathy only irritate

And vague condolences simply start to grate.

Now it doesn’t matter, there is no sense of now.

Who knows what the time is, what plaintive songs avow?

Losing concentration, as things dissipate

The widower, thus becalmed, all I do is wait…

Dead Calm III

Oil on canvas
66x86.5 cm

“Projects tend to develop through close observation or incorporation of discarded objects or seemingly insignificant locations, sometimes with photographic references. They may take months to gel in the mind’s eye before construction begins. Works depict the natural and supernatural, drawing on mythical and everyday sources. Where the immediate focus is on technical capability (How do I do this?), the literary element recedes to rest in a title, sufficient clue to the thematic purpose. Taking a serpentine path, as if coiling back on myself, lately verses emerged to be integrated with finished works or stand apart. The question arises ‘Are the pictures simply illustrations of the text? Which do you see first?’ ”

Harry Levene

Harry Levene: studied graphic design at St Martin’s School of Art (now UAL); exploring the relationship between words and images, an interest which continued thereafter as a visual artist. He developed his own painting techniques combining traditional artists’ materials with others recycled or found, often testing the boundary between painting and sculpture; depicting the natural and supernatural, the mythical and the everyday. He has exhibited in the UK and overseas.

Website: Harry Levene
Instagram: @harrylevene