Dara Levine
Work Details
🛒 Artwork for Sale · $1500 →About This Work
Nothing Wasted is a three-piece wall installation handbuilt from slab-formed stoneware clay and composed of several hundred individually hand-rolled clay spheres. The organic forms evoke cells, seeds, spores, and the intricate networks found throughout nature. Finished with lead-free satin glazes, each sculpture contains a single matte black sphere symbolizing mortality, through both natural predation and humanity's disruption of fragile ecosystems.
This work is rooted in a memory from a twelve-month journey around the world in 1997, when I spent two months traveling through Africa. One afternoon in Kruger National Park, South Africa, I witnessed an elderly giraffe that had been brought down by a lioness. As the intense afternoon heat rose from the earth, I sat quietly for two hours with the windows open, watching dung beetles tirelessly roll away the dung surrounding the animal. What could have been a moment defined only by death instead revealed nature's extraordinary capacity for renewal. Every living thing, no matter how small, played a role in transforming loss into new life.
That experience forever changed how I understand the natural world, not as separate moments of life and death, but as an unbroken continuum of transformation. Time seemed to dissolve as I observed the quiet intelligence of the ecosystem unfolding before me. The experience became a meditation on interconnectedness, resilience, and the profound consciousness embedded within nature itself.
Through clay, I translate this enduring memory into sculptural form. The repetition of hundreds of individually formed spheres reflects the countless organisms and relationships that sustain life, while the solitary black sphere serves as a reminder that death is not an end, but an essential part of nature's continuous cycle.
Artist Bio
Dara Levine is a ceramic artist whose work explores the interconnectedness of nature, memory, and place. Working under the name Museum Mile Art, she creates both functional ceramics and sculptural installations inspired by global trip from 1996-1997 and close observation of the natural world. Her practice reflects a lifelong fascination with the patterns, textures, and quiet intelligence found within ecosystems. After graduating from the University of Vermont, Levine built a career spanning fashion, Photography, wine, finance, and travel accessories. Throughout those years, ceramics and photography remained a constant creative thread, eventually becoming the foundation of her studio practice here in Jersey City. Working primarily in stoneware, Levine wheel-throws and hand-builds each piece in her studio, embracing process, repetition, and the individuality of handmade forms. Whether creating sculptural wall installations or functional tableware, her work is rooted in the belief that clay can preserve memory and invite reflection on humanity's relationship with the natural world. Levine divides her time between New York City and the Oregon Coast with her husband, Brad, where the contrasting landscapes continue to inspire her exploration of transformation, resilience, and the enduring cycles of life.
Mediums
Ceramics & Pottery, Photography