Art BY ANGELA MATUA In MemoriAm Long Island City artists pay homage to 9/11 victims with pieces displayed The 9/11 Memorial Museum will debut its first major special exhibition on Sept. 12, and two of the 13 artists hail from Long Island City. “Rendering the Unthinkable: Artists Respond to 9/11” will showcase the New York City-based artists’ reactions to the attacks and will range from paintings to sculptures and videos. Long Island City‘s close proximity to Manhattan gave residents an up-close view of the destruction caused by the attack. The Queens artists showcasing their work at the museum struggled to continue creating artwork after witnessing such a shocking event. Pastel artist Donna Levinstone had just finished her last round of chemotherapy for breast cancer in August 2001. One month later, as she was working in her studio on 90th Street in Manhattan, two planes struck the World Trade Center. “The next day was very visceral,” Levinstone said. “It was a windy day and the smoke came up and I actually smelled the smoke. That memory of smell and burning and certainly watching the imagery had in Memorial Museum me going to the drawing board.” It took Levinstone three months to actually put pastel to paper. She was asked to create a piece for the National Arts Club in Washington, D.C., called “True Colors: Meditations on the American Spirit,” which forced her to reflect on that day. “I was sort of stuck for a few months,” Levinstone said. “I could not draw anything.” Her 9/11 series consists of eight pieces showing the towers as they become consumed by smoke. Titled “Ascending Spirit,” “Eternal Rest,” “In God’s Light” and “Almost Gone,” the pieces are either black and white or black and gold. “Eternal Rest,” inspired by photographs, news media and smells that the wind carried to Levinstone’s home, will be displayed at the museum starting on Sept. 12. It depicts a cloud that formed around these towers protecting and guiding lives to eternal rest. “Eternal Rest” (Images courtesy of Donna Levinstone) Initially, Levinstone thought to create a simple portrait of the towers, but as she continued to reflect on that day, she wanted to do more. “You have two things at play here,” Levinstone said. “It was a man-made disaster but it still has some of those aftermath feelings of something being out of our control.” Before 9/11, Levinstone said her work focused on portraying the beauty found in nature but now, she focuses on the powerful forces of nature. The clouds in her 9/11 series acted as a “protector” for the people trapped in the building. “There is a certain hopeful quality to the way I portray the sky, an openness,” Levinstone said. “When you look up at the sky you think, ‘Everything is going to be OK.’ I’m not a totally religious person but when they talk about exodus and God coming in a cloud of smoke I got that feeling about the disappearance of these people.” An artist for more than 30 years, Levinstone focuses on depicting the many colors and shapes of the sky. She works from a studio at 43-01 22nd St. in Long Island City and has always been fascinated with clouds.
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