Jennifer Levine

BIO

Jennifer Levine is an experienced arts educator with a background in both administration and teaching. She is the founder of “Paint-a-Prayer” - a mural arts education program and a teaching artist with Arts Westchester. Her art residencies in schools combine murals,and mindfulness. She received her Master’s in Fine Arts at Suny, New Paltz in May, 2023. She was teacher for 25 years and the Director of Education at 4 schools: Temple ShoIom, a Reform synagogue in Scotch Plains, Kane Street Synagogue in Brooklyn, NY, Temple Bnai Abraham in Oakland, Ca and Temple Emanu-El in Closter, NJ.

She is a graduate of the Leadership Institute - a three year professional development program for Jewish leaders co-sponsored by JTS and HUC and IJS’s Jewish Mindfulness Meditation teaching training. She has been practicing Transendental Meditation for fifteen years and is certified with mindfulschools.org to teach mindfulness skills to k-12. Jennifer is starting a three year training in Painting at the New York Studio school this fall.

My artwork is informed by my experience of being a woman and a mother, and inspired by goddess statuary from the cycladic period. Making for me faith - where a sacred, tender hand soothes the unresolved. The paintings, drawings and encaustics I create are a conversation between my conscious self and my unconscious, history and the present. As with surrealist’s automatism, my studio process is unrehearsed. I start by setting certain artistic boundaries regarding color, size and medium and then play with variations. I see my artistic process as an extension of my meditation practice. Through both, I experience a state of transcendence and flow. The resulting work is the experience made tangible through color, line and image. In addition to my private studio practice, I work with communities up and down the East coast to create murals. Springboarding from my decades as a teacher and principal in Jewish education, I facilitate large scale mural projects with up to 400 people typically over a two week period. With my support, participants are invited to contribute to the mural design and paint their images directly on the wall. In the final stage, I paint, interacting with the communities’ painting, and bring the work to completion. The surprises in design and depth of meaning that come from this process brings joy to the community - and informs and inspires my studio practice.