I.S. Levitz West Hartford artist I.S. Levitz’s exhibition, “House and Garden,” currently featured in the main dining room, offers a vibrant, multi-hued vision of commonplace subjects from her world, transformed by her palate as she layers images in a fresh exploration of everday reality. Subjects such as flags, game boards, and images from the home and garden provide Ms. Levitz’s artistic vehicle for autobiographical expressions that serve as “metaphors for a moment in time,” she says. “The color and rhythmic mark-making give the painting a voice,” Ms. Levitz observes. “This is the visual dialogue that brings sensibility and feeling to the surface of the painting. The work is layered, as is life. Each layer visually informs the next, until the final painting emerges.” Ms. Levitz, a graduate of Vesper George School of Art in Boston, has been active in the Connecticut arts community for more than three decades as a painter, educator and curator. Her works have shown frequently in juried and solo exhibitions in Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury and additional locations statewide, garnering prizes in competitions sponsored by the Wintonbury Art League, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Town of Bloomfield, and others. Recent shows have featured selections from her recent work at the Taub Gallery at the University of Hartford, the Signature Gallery in West Hartford, and the Pump House Gallery in Hartford. She held an “open studio” exhibition in May at her present artistic home at the Farmington Valley Arts Center in Avon. Ms. Levitz shares her artistic experience, techniques and philosophy as an educator, writer, exhibition juror, and board member. She has been especially active in the West Hartford Art League in recent years, serving on the League board and offering master classes on themes such as “Creating Great Color” and “Cezanne and Beyond.” She previously created a summer art program sponsored by the League for elementary school children in the West Hartford area. She has also served as a board member at the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, chairperson of the arts committee of the Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center, and director of the National Council of Jewish Women. "Home is Where the Heart Is," shown above, is one of 11 Levitz paintings in acrylic currently on exhibition in the main dining room of the Good News Cafe.