Articles from:
The Inquirer and Mirror 2007
The Inquirer and Mirror 2006
Nantucket Today
Boston Globe
Independent
Nantucket Times

(N Magazine, 2003)

MJ Levy Dickson, Artist and Illustrator

by Reema Sherry

Ten minutes into a conversation about her current work, it’s clear that exploration is the focus for M.J. Levy Dickson. But that exploration emerges from long-term discipline in draftsmanship and painting technique. These days she’s creating pieces in a variety of media; primarily watercolor, plus oils, ink, and pencil. Traditional Japanese Sumi painting is a passion for Levy Dickson. The boundless intricacies of working with these ancient types of brushes and inks are both fascinating and rewarding. She’s exploring those same strokes in her watercolors as well, such as executing a wonderfully graceful purple-red calla lily in one pass of the brush with shading and nuance accomplished by expertly loading the color.

“In Sumi painting, there’s a sense that discipline leads to freedom of expression,” said Levy Dickson. A recent winter painting retreat in South Florida gave her time to push these themes. She returned to Nantucket with beautiful new pieces focusing on nature: plants, animals, and landscapes have been her inspiration throughout her career. A member of the Artists’ Association of Nantucket since 1972, Levy Dickson has seen quite an evolution in the island’s art scene. She’s been a part of many aspects of that community, as a founding member of the (x) Gallery in its first season, running the salon-style James Hunt Barker Gallery in the late ‘90’s, and creating botanical illustrations for “Wildflowers of Nantucket” by author Peter Dunwiddie. Currently she exhibits at the Old Spouter Gallery on Lower Orange Street.

In addition to experimenting with surface and the blending of media in her painting, her presentation elevates the work to another level. Often created on smaller pieces of paper, torn edges intact, the drawing or painting is then layered with bits of colorful handmade paper or vintage fabric to compose a mixed media frieze of texture and pattern. A triptych is created by tearing apart a piece of paper and reassembling it into three separate images. A true collector, Levy Dickson pushes herself in assembling found materials into her seemingly spontaneous paintings and drawings.

“I have enough projects to last the rest of my life,” she says. “You can’t keep looking outside of yourself for something to inspire you; it has to be already there, inside of you.”