Current Exhibition

Changes
Ralph Levesque
November 2009 - March 2010

Ralph Levesque has experienced a lifetime of changes from getting his MS in Fine Art from University of Bridgeport to teaching art for thirty five years to young students in Hamden and Durham private schools to displaying his imaginative and award winning works in galleries all over Connecticut. “I’m a romantic visual poet, aware that all design is inspired by the Natural”, says Levesque. Gifted with an inquisitive and curious mind, Ralph uses natural and man-made materials to express their hidden meanings beyond their physical presence. “In my sculpture and paintings, I use tactical elements to elicit emotional reactions. My intention is to infuse my work with a spiritual dimension that is universal and available to all of us if only we look with great and simple awareness.”

Ralph’s lifelong commitment to art and spirituality fits beautifully with the mission and programs of Mercy Center.  Ralph's art is showcased inside the gallery space and outside throughout the grounds.

The show’s name “Changes” displays work done between 2007 and present day during the time Ralph was caregiver to his beloved wife of 32 years, Hatsy, who died of a lung fibrosis. The artist wishes to share these works as a way to express a journey many of us face and to underscore the strength and safety of his spirituality which is available to all.

The exhibition in the Mary C. Daly, RSM Art Gallery will run from November 4, 2009 through February 1, 2010.  The gallery is open Monday – Saturday, 9:00am – 3:00pm.  A Gallery Talk with the artist will be held in December (more details about this event to follow).


Ralph Levesque: Artist Statement
Sculptor, Painter, Poet, Artist
October 22, 2009

In our world of technology, science and industry, I see the natural beauty of “what is” being lost and distorted from our daily lives. The miraculous “human touch” is what I celebrate, allowing intuitive hands to guide the work. My art points to a simpler time when art was a spiritual endeavor, reaching for the unexplainable.

I’m a romantic visual poet, aware that all designs and symbols are inspired by the Natural order and energy of our world. I’m not concerned with producing copied images of nature but seek to find the hidden beauty within the surfaces of the materials I use. The reality of matter is always moving, changing and becoming new.

Instinctively, I’m drawn to the essence of this universal beauty…the intrinsic force that binds all things. The true artist is a person that intimately understands and recognizes what others merely profess to know. Using natural and man-made materials, old and new, discarded or re-cycled, I combine, spread, tear or shape them to reveal their undiscovered truths. I’ve been granted a gift of a “child-like mind” which allows me to see the hidden rhythms and patterns in materials. In many ways, the finished piece is as much a delightful surprise as it is to those seeing it for the first time!

I’m also blessed to possess a rich ancestry of Greek, French and Cree Indian. My parents and these cultures greatly influenced my outlook on life and flows into my art.

My mother was Greek and told me stories of her heritage as an artist. My great- grandfather was a potter and a ceramics painter in Greece. The Greeks love for beauty; form and spirituality combined with their thirst and curiosity for knowledge are part of my soul. My father was French Canadian and Cree Indian. Through him, I “feel” the spiritual lust, shamanic healing, love for Mother Earth and an organic feeling of “oneness” among all living things.

There’s a clear intention for reaching a place of “spiritual knowing” in my art…symbols of the circle, rectangle, spiral and triangle and universal and strong. Art is my way of expressing the universal quest we have to find who we are.