Jennifer S. Levine thought her artistic spark had been born in fifth grade, during after-school art class. But while cleaning out her childhood home after her parents passed, she found something that rewrote her own origin story.
“I found this writing assignment,” she recalls. “It was basically just a writing exercise to learn your letters, that kind of thing from third grade, and it said that I wanted to be an art teacher. I’d always said fifth grade, but apparently that was always there.”
Levine, a longtime artist, writer and arts advocate in Denver, has spent decades living up to that early declaration, though not always in the most conventional sense. After studying drawing and painting in college, she pivoted to sculpture after encountering the work of Dale Chihuly, launching a two-decade career in glassblowing. But following a period of caretaking, personal loss and a return to her Texas roots, Levine found herself called back to painting.
“When I went back to Dallas to take care of my father, that's when I started painting again," Levine says. "When I went back to my roots, taking care of family and stuff, blowing glass in the Texas heat didn’t seem like a good idea, so I was like, ‘I'm just gonna go back to my roots and paint.’ It was a whole like metaphor, if you will. I went back to my roots, after eighteen years in Colorado, and I found my voice again in color."
Now, after years of working primarily in glass, Levine is leaning into painting and returning to the public with a renewed purpose. On Friday, August 1, she’ll debut a fresh body of paintings at A HAWT AUGUST NIGHT, a First Friday pop-up at Bitfactory Gallery and Studios alongside muralist Tommy Kaui Nahulu and glassblower Ben “Burtoni” Burton.
“I haven’t done First Friday in ages,” Levine says. “So I’m really looking forward to being at First Friday on Santa Fe and feeling the energy there. I’m just working right now on making fresh work and curious to hear how people respond to what they see.”
Levine’s current paintings are non-objective compositions layered with color, custom-cut vinyl patterns and sentimental materials like her mother’s lace doilies.
“My pictures are layers,” she explained. “Every color that you see is a layer of the piece and the layers reflect life. I love exploring color. All the different layers of the color really create this impact of vast relief."
Each piece includes a written element, short prose texts drawn from her training in creative writing and art history.
"The written component and the art go hand in hand," Levine says. "It's kind of like a symphony; they play off one another."
This marriage of visual and verbal expression was at the heart of her recent solo exhibition, This Is Not a Pipe, which showcased 37 pieces. The title was a nod to her glassblowing past, as well as an assertion that her current work is about emotional representation rather than literal form.
"Because my stuff is not objective work, people call it abstract, but actually, if it has no reflection of the natural world, then it's non-objective," Levine says. "With This Is Not a Pipe, things aren't just what they are. They aren't the picture of the pipe; it's a representation. So my non-objective work with written accompaniment is a representation of feeling, memory, etc., so it all fits together nicely."
A virtual tour of This Is Not a Pipe is available online, offering viewers a chance to experience the immersive installation remotely.
As Levine deepens her painting practice, she’s also reflecting on the community-focused work that defined her earlier career. With Firepower Productions, the event platform she founded, Levine brought live glassblowing, graffiti, body painting, tattoo art and more to unexpected venues across Colorado. Her only rule for participating artists? They had to be full-time professionals.
“If I’m busting my bum to get people through the door, you need to know how to do this yourself,” she says. The original impetus for FirePower was to break down barriers between artists and audiences. “
The whole mission with Firepower was community outreach and education,” Levine explains. “People see glass behind the cases and paintings on the walls and they’re like, ‘Why is this so expensive?’ So I got to teach people about the unexpected joys of art, but I didn’t have to deal with homework.”
While she doesn’t consider herself retired from glass entirely, she’s found that painting offers something different.
"I still have my blowtorch," she clarifies. "I still have all my gear, but with what I'm doing now, painting is really speaking to me and seems to be speaking to other people as well."
She’s also planning a potential fall show and looking to reignite her network of artists. But for now, A HAWT AUGUST NIGHT offers an opportunity to reconnect with the Denver arts community and for others to see what’s emerged from her latest creative chapter.
“Art history is my passion. It’s my love, my expression,” she said. “But to separate yourself from your audience, when your whole core existence is expression, seems silly to me. Absolutely silly, so I'm looking forward to organizing more events to re-engage the Denver community."
A HAWT AUGUST NIGHT is Friday, August 1, at Bitfactory Gallery and Studio, 851 Santa Fe Drive. Doors at 6 p.m.
“I found this writing assignment,” she recalls. “It was basically just a writing exercise to learn your letters, that kind of thing from third grade, and it said that I wanted to be an art teacher. I’d always said fifth grade, but apparently that was always there.”
Levine, a longtime artist, writer and arts advocate in Denver, has spent decades living up to that early declaration, though not always in the most conventional sense. After studying drawing and painting in college, she pivoted to sculpture after encountering the work of Dale Chihuly, launching a two-decade career in glassblowing. But following a period of caretaking, personal loss and a return to her Texas roots, Levine found herself called back to painting.
“When I went back to Dallas to take care of my father, that's when I started painting again," Levine says. "When I went back to my roots, taking care of family and stuff, blowing glass in the Texas heat didn’t seem like a good idea, so I was like, ‘I'm just gonna go back to my roots and paint.’ It was a whole like metaphor, if you will. I went back to my roots, after eighteen years in Colorado, and I found my voice again in color."
Now, after years of working primarily in glass, Levine is leaning into painting and returning to the public with a renewed purpose. On Friday, August 1, she’ll debut a fresh body of paintings at A HAWT AUGUST NIGHT, a First Friday pop-up at Bitfactory Gallery and Studios alongside muralist Tommy Kaui Nahulu and glassblower Ben “Burtoni” Burton.
“I haven’t done First Friday in ages,” Levine says. “So I’m really looking forward to being at First Friday on Santa Fe and feeling the energy there. I’m just working right now on making fresh work and curious to hear how people respond to what they see.”
Levine’s current paintings are non-objective compositions layered with color, custom-cut vinyl patterns and sentimental materials like her mother’s lace doilies.
“My pictures are layers,” she explained. “Every color that you see is a layer of the piece and the layers reflect life. I love exploring color. All the different layers of the color really create this impact of vast relief."
Each piece includes a written element, short prose texts drawn from her training in creative writing and art history.
"The written component and the art go hand in hand," Levine says. "It's kind of like a symphony; they play off one another."
This marriage of visual and verbal expression was at the heart of her recent solo exhibition, This Is Not a Pipe, which showcased 37 pieces. The title was a nod to her glassblowing past, as well as an assertion that her current work is about emotional representation rather than literal form.
"Because my stuff is not objective work, people call it abstract, but actually, if it has no reflection of the natural world, then it's non-objective," Levine says. "With This Is Not a Pipe, things aren't just what they are. They aren't the picture of the pipe; it's a representation. So my non-objective work with written accompaniment is a representation of feeling, memory, etc., so it all fits together nicely."
A virtual tour of This Is Not a Pipe is available online, offering viewers a chance to experience the immersive installation remotely.
As Levine deepens her painting practice, she’s also reflecting on the community-focused work that defined her earlier career. With Firepower Productions, the event platform she founded, Levine brought live glassblowing, graffiti, body painting, tattoo art and more to unexpected venues across Colorado. Her only rule for participating artists? They had to be full-time professionals.
“If I’m busting my bum to get people through the door, you need to know how to do this yourself,” she says. The original impetus for FirePower was to break down barriers between artists and audiences. “
The whole mission with Firepower was community outreach and education,” Levine explains. “People see glass behind the cases and paintings on the walls and they’re like, ‘Why is this so expensive?’ So I got to teach people about the unexpected joys of art, but I didn’t have to deal with homework.”
While she doesn’t consider herself retired from glass entirely, she’s found that painting offers something different.
"I still have my blowtorch," she clarifies. "I still have all my gear, but with what I'm doing now, painting is really speaking to me and seems to be speaking to other people as well."
She’s also planning a potential fall show and looking to reignite her network of artists. But for now, A HAWT AUGUST NIGHT offers an opportunity to reconnect with the Denver arts community and for others to see what’s emerged from her latest creative chapter.
“Art history is my passion. It’s my love, my expression,” she said. “But to separate yourself from your audience, when your whole core existence is expression, seems silly to me. Absolutely silly, so I'm looking forward to organizing more events to re-engage the Denver community."
A HAWT AUGUST NIGHT is Friday, August 1, at Bitfactory Gallery and Studio, 851 Santa Fe Drive. Doors at 6 p.m.
