Some people receive a sign from heaven. Mitch Levin received a sign from a license plate.
Driving home after quitting his secure computer graphics job for the uncertain life of an artist, Levin saw the name of a character by author Ayn Rand-a fierce advocate of individuality.
”I took the license plate as a positive sign,” Levin says. ”I knew I had done the right thing.”
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Mitch builds furniture in the basement of his Arlington Heights home, while his wife, Susie, has staked out the upstairs for her large-scale, three-dimensional paintings.
”I think they are very innovative,” says Phyllis Fersten, co-owner of Unique Accents, Northbrook, which sells the work of the Levins. ”The art is upbeat, upscale. The colors are bright, lively and the pieces are whimsical, but sophisticated.”
One of Mitch`s unusual tables, for example, looks and works as a single piece of furniture, but also pulls apart, like parts of a puzzle, into three smaller tables, Fersten says.
Mitch`s work ranges from $300 to $11,000 (custom dining room table). Susie`s paintings start at $1,200.
They do collaborate on colors occasionally, Mitch says, mostly for his furniture.
”By getting her input,” he says, ”I think it`s more gender neutral.”