volume 13, numbers 1&2, 2018

About the cover artwork

Ellen Levine, The sandal, 2017, paper, acrylic paint, tissue paper, photograph, 841 x 594mm.

Artist statement

I did this painting during the Keynote Speech at the ANZATA conference in Melbourne in December 2017. Stephen Levine was speaking, and I was painting at the same time. When I paint like this, as I have done many times over the years, I do not illustrate his lecture but I allow the words to fall over me and drop in from time to time. For the conference, I brought a photograph which I have been working with in other paintings. The image is from Iraq and shows a single sandal (with a heart on the strap) sitting atop rubble in the midst of a bombed-out area.

The photograph makes me dream about the person who was wearing this sandal, about her story. I imagine that she fled quickly with only one sandal. I imagine that she either escaped or was trapped and died under the rubble. By imagining her story, I feel empathically connected to the wearer of this sandal. This brings me closer to the possible experience of someone in this situation.

Painting in and around the photograph also leads me to connect more strongly with what it might be like to live in a war zone. I want to emphasise the photograph in my painting so the viewer can’t help looking at it. In work like this, I am trying to break through my own anaesthesia about war and its destructiveness, and also to help the viewer do the same. The forms and colours that I chose have to do with emphasising the photograph at the same time as placing it in a soft and protective context. Letting the terrible situation rest in the forms I have created for it, letting the viewer see it and experience a mix of shock, curiosity and loving attention.

About the artist

  • MSW, PhD, ATR-BC, REAT, RSW

    In Toronto, Ellen is a Senior Staff Social Worker at the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre for Children’s Mental Health where she teaches, supervises and practices in the areas of play therapy, group therapy and expressive arts therapy. She is co-founder and faculty member of The CREATE Institute in Toronto, a three-year training program in expressive arts therapy. She is a Professor and Core Faculty member of the European Graduate School in Switzerland, a summer school program that awards Masters and Doctoral Degrees in the Division of Arts, Health and Society. Ellen has written and edited numerous books, the most recent, New developments in expressive arts therapy: The play of poiesis. She has exhibited her paintings in Canada, the US and at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. She has also studied clown and mask work with Richard Pochinko (in Toronto), Phillippe Gaulier (in London) and others. She performs as part of the clown couple, Max and Sadie.