Grieving in Color: Inspiration through the Artwork of Alexandra Levasseur

The line drawing me closer and closer to the works of French Canadian artist Alexandra Levasseur is first and foremost the color. Her works don’t necessarily overwhelm the senses with bright colors and patterns, but rather nudge a viewer into noticing all the small details. Paintings I otherwise would have labeled too busy and over-stimulating become interesting to look at in their entirety. My eyes first notice the color palette, and secondly, the facial expressions of her human subjects, often colorful themselves to match their environments.  

Temps Transfiguré

Levasseur’s works incorporate elements I enjoy in Januz’s Miralles’ work—a combination of hyperrealism and surrealism that doesn’t translate into fantasy but rather very real emotions pulled out into a physical realm.

Réincarnation Secrète

Allow yourself to look over these selected Levasseur works before free writing. The colors all create a different mood—the lack of expression, of body, and the surplus or repetition of the body, all do different things. This can be done in poetry as well. 

Body of Land

Add color to your writing—whether that mean literal names of colors, or colorful language you aren’t familiar with, or a description of a color without naming it. 

Summer Heat

Imagine if you were larger than your landscape. 

All images courtesy of Alexandra Levasseur