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Margarete Levin (FERRARO)
USA
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"I am what I paint, and I paint what I am."
Margarete Levin, who works under the name Ferraro, is a figurative artist with a passion for painting stories that emphasise dynamic human emotions. Her work allows her to intimately celebrate the connections of the soul beyond the confines of the physical world. Over the course of her career she has created a stylised artistic style that reflects her personal expression and creativity. In her own words, when her artwork is created it can transport a viewer within its depth to experience a magnitude of emotions in a physical form, an effect she pursues consistently across the subjects and themes she returns to throughout her practice.
I am a woman and I can | Acrylic
$4,200
24"x30"
In stillness, you will find your voice and be anything you were told you couldn't be. Walk forward, don't look back. Walk with grace, let the fire burn within you bright and quiet in a world too noisy to notice. Discover your power, fall in love with your mystery for you are a Woman…a phenomenal woman.
Before creating a painting, Levin envisions it in every corner of her mind, considering it as the ultimate truth that instantly exists upon conception. From that point, in her account of the process, all that is needed is to transform this conception into a tangible work of art. The painting therefore begins fully formed in thought rather than emerging through the act of making. This method places the decisive stage of the work before any material is touched, and it shapes how she approaches every composition she goes on to complete on canvas or panel.
I am the mother of it all | Acrylic
$4,200
30"x30"
When we truly understand the gifts, the beauty and the power of Mother Earth, we will be able to fully accept that we are all interconnected. This is a small tribute to Jane Goodall, who once said: "What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make". Mother Earth is within all of us. Mother Earth is the Divine Feminine.
"A picture becomes true for me the instant it arrives in thought."
Giving voice to injustice is one of the stated purposes of her work, alongside a simpler invitation to explore an ethereal perspective on one's reality. Levin firmly believes that each piece of art she has created, together with the techniques applied to it, has the potential to provoke thought and to provide a voice to causes, thoughts, and emotions. That conviction runs through her practice as a whole rather than attaching to any single series, and it explains why her paintings are framed as stories to be entered rather than images to be observed from a distance.
I am Freedom | Acrylic
$4,200
24"x30"
For what imagined fault was I held captive and withdrawn into winters long gone? Self-vowed into seclusion, contemplating each past fated fault within the suffocating walls of my mind and chained by fate; until the coldness of reality brought forth the sounds of hope and freedom that destroyed my false shelter. I am free, I healed, I grew, I have risen and soar to an infinite realm of self-love and respect. Dedicated to women who are survivors of Domestic Violence.
Inspiration typically comes to Levin through closely observing the world around her. Experiencing life in different cultures has contributed to that observation, as have long hikes in the magical forests of the Big Horn Mountains, which she describes as having a profound effect on the unexpected wonders surrounding her creative psyche. She has written that such experiences can transport her within their depth to experience a magnitude of emotions in a physical form. The language she uses for the landscape and the language she uses for her paintings are, notably, the same language, which locates the origin of the work in direct experience of the world rather than in invention.
I kneel before the rising sun and my heart sings at the very beauty of happiness in my life. Through vivid imagery of a new day, Joy is in little things when you embrace your surroundings and inner peace. Look around, feel your own beauty and savor the universal feeling of elation surrounding your life.
I am Joy | Acrylic
$4,200
24"x30"
"Brushwork handles structure, modelling paste supplies weight wherever a passage asks for physical texture, and airbrushed fluid acrylic delivers that softness my ethereal figures demand, so one surface can carry precision beside atmosphere without either cancelling the other."
"Several of the women on my canvases came out of a stretch of life I would not wish on anybody, and I did not altogether realise that while they were being made. There was a season when I had persuaded myself that shutting myself away amounted to protection, that behind such barriers nothing further could get at me, and it was a long while before I saw them for what they actually were, which was a slow way of vanishing. Nothing arrived from outside to break me loose. What broke me loose was harder and far more useful, a flat acknowledgement that I had accepted much less than was owed to me and that no rescuer whatsoever was on the way to point this out. So whenever a person who has lived through the same thing pauses at one of these pieces and quietly tells me she finds herself there, the exchange justifies every hour the canvas took. She is not there to compliment my handling of the medium. She is being told, through the only speech I fully rely upon, that nothing regarding her conclusion is settled yet, and that anybody prepared to quit accepting less can still turn and walk toward a better life."
I am "Seaductive" | Acrylic
$3,400
28"x24"
I am the ocean’s depth, a metaphor of the unknown in the vastness of my inner universe. I symbolize the mutability of constant changes in my passage of time. I am engulfed by silence reflecting on past foes yet inviting one to explore my mystery and my ability to awe and inspire my own purpose to break free of the mundane.
Working on canvas or wood panels, Levin executes her images with vibrant acrylic colours that inspire her to express the feelings emanating from within. She particularly uses brush rendering, modelling paste when required, and airbrushed fluid acrylics for the softness desired on her ethereal figures. Each technique is chosen for what a passage of a painting asks of it, so that structure, texture, and atmosphere can coexist within a single composition. This technical range supports the stylised approach she has developed and gives her ethereal figures their characteristic quality of being both defined and diffused within the same painted surface.
I am Nature | Acrylic
$4,200
24"x30"
I am Nature and those who contemplate my beauty with all its imperfections, will find that it is filled with magic just waiting to be discovered. Keep my image in your heart and listen to the birds sing sweet melodies of self-discovery.
Recurring across her paintings is a concern with feminine strength and self-discovery. Her accompanying texts speak of finding your voice in stillness, of walking forward without looking back, and of letting a fire burn within you bright and quiet in a world too noisy to notice. They invite the viewer to discover her power and fall in love with her mystery. Elsewhere she writes of kneeling before the rising sun with a heart that sings at the beauty of happiness in her life, and of finding joy in little things by embracing both surroundings and inner peace, looking around to feel one's own beauty and savour a universal sense of elation.
I am music and I can touch the deepest corners of our souls.
I can evoke feelings and secretly caress you, thus expressing what cannot be
put into words but cannot remain silent.
I am Music | Acrylic
$4,200
24"x30"
Among the most direct strands of her work is a painting dedicated to women who are survivors of domestic violence, asking for what imagined fault the speaker was held captive, self-vowed into seclusion within the suffocating walls of her mind, until the coldness of reality brought forth the sounds of hope and freedom that destroyed a false shelter. A related work speaks of sinking to the darkest depth of despair before finding the courage to understand the magnitude of a resurrection, learning patience and forgiveness, and stopping settling in order to love oneself first. Its closing image is a butterfly completing the spiritual transformation of life.
"Colour lets emotion escape whichever way language refuses to cooperate with me."
Nature holds equal weight in her subject matter. Levin has written that when the gifts, beauty, and power of Mother Earth are truly understood, we are able to accept that we are all interconnected, and that Mother Earth is within all of us as the Divine Feminine. One work is a small tribute to Jane Goodall. Elsewhere her figures speak as nature itself, filled with magic waiting to be discovered, as the ocean's depth and a metaphor for the unknown within a vast inner universe, and as music able to touch the deepest corners of our souls and express what cannot be put into words yet cannot remain silent.
I am Life | Acrylic
$4,200
30"x24"
I changed, I sank down to the darkest depth of despair before I could find the courage to understand the magnitude of my resurrection. I learned that having been at the lowest point of my life, taught me patience and forgiveness. I healed. I stopped settling and loved myself first. Second chances are within reach. I am now a beautiful butterfly who completed the spiritual transformation of life.
Levin's earlier career includes being the first artist to create the concept of La Mysteriose Women, along with themes such as juvenile fantasy unicorns, country still life, and African American jazz combos and dancers, solo exhibited by her publisher, Scafa Tornabene Art Publishing Company, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York between 1984 and 1991. She received nine BOLI Awards, standing for Best of Long Island, in 1985 for Best Illustrator, working for American Movie Classics and the Bravo television network. Solo shows followed at the Montmartre Art Gallery in Lindhurst, New Jersey in 1992 and the Simply Elegant Gallery in Pembroke Pines, Florida in 1994. Her unicorn fantasy collection featured on Bradford Exchange collectable plates in 1993.
To change directions of the sudden wind is impossible, but you can adjust to its direction to always reach your destination. Life is full of beauty. Smell the rain, and feel the wind touching your face. Live your life to the fullest and soar with your dreams.
I am just like the wind | Acrylic
$1,500
28"x24"
Recognition has continued in the decades since, including Best International Car Mural at the International Lowrider Car Show in Las Vegas in 1999. At a 2008 group show at Warehouse 21 in Santa Fe, thirty percent of her sale proceeds were donated to MADD, Impact DWI, and Warehouse 21 itself. Her awards include an Artavita International Competition Honorable Mention in 2009, the Jeff Potter Memorial Award at New Mexico RGAA Encantada in 2019, an Award of Excellence there in 2021, finalist placement in New Mexico Masterworks in 2020, and Honorable Mention in 2019 followed by Finalist and Featured Artist recognition in 2023 from the Circle of the Arts Foundation. From 2008 to 2023 her practice has included airbrush art on motorcycles, group shows, portrait commissions, and book cover commissions.
I am the hope for change | Acrylic
$2,200
26"x26"
As darkness engulfs your being from time to time, this tiny and colorful creature whose flight resonates an incredible high vibration, with the power to bring forth the hidden presence of hope and inspiration from the depth of your soul. Its joyful dance awakens your inner light by engulfing your aching heart with one step closer to fulfill your dreams for they are what keeps us focused on joy and happiness.
"Magical forests up in the mountains permanently altered how my imagination works."
Margarete Levin (FERRARO)
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