Emily Levine

Art History and German Studies major

Throughout my time at Wellesley, I’ve taken a few studio-based classes, as a way to intentionally tap back into my lifelong passion and take time off from intensive reading or writing. These courses included dark room photography and experimental artmaking. My appreciation for and time spent making art has always stemmed from my appreciation for tactility, seeing and feeling and smelling the art being made before you. In falling in love with analog photography starting in high school, I loved pouring the chemicals, hearing the clicking of the camera and watching enlargements come to be real photos. In my sculptural work, bending metal, having my eardrums be blasted from drilling noises and puzzle-piecing parts together were what I found to be more satisfying and significant than the finished work itself. Art allows me to test my patience and creativity, of which I am able to apply to other aspects of my life and learning adventures. As I leave Wellesley, I hope to take these lessons of art appreciation with me and continue my artistic practice wherever I end up.

Coffee table

thrifted pots and pans, steel conduit, wood, metal frame

Jewett Hallway Galleries

This piece was made during my studio arts seminar, “ARTS380: Everything but the kitchen sink”. In this course, we investigated the role and intersection of food and art, food in art and art in food. We centered the course around Charles Spence’s book Gastrophysics which looked into the philosophy, experience and sensations of food consumption. The course was split into 5 five modules, each completed with a project: memory, mimicry, “sonic seasoning,” contextual practice and a final project. This piece was made as my culminating project, where I was trying to incorporate my interest in objects both in and out of their original contexts, as well as transforming a very utilitarian object into something nonfunctional from its original use. A pot-and-pan coffee table was the synthesis. Learning how to use unfamiliar equipment and processes in the wood and metalshop was incredibly rewarding, making me feel empowered with my new knowledge of machinery or nail-names. This piece took about sixty hours to complete and was my most rewarding project from the course. 

to see more work by Emily: @photoesbyem

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