Melissa Hope Levin
Visual artist, art teacher, LGBT youth mentor, vintage store owner. Born on March 30, 1958, in Levittown, Pa.; died on Oct. 27, 2015, in Toronto, from polycythemia rubra vera, aged 57.
I will always remember the day I met the woman who would become my beloved partner. It was in Chicago, in 1996. A mutual friend had given Melissa my phone number, and we had agreed to meet. I knocked on a total stranger's door, and was greeted by a woman in an ochre flower-printed vintage dress, blue ankle socks and brown men's shoes. The effect, with her curly dark-brown hair piled on her head, and impossibly blue eyes, was pure Melissa.
She was flustered ("Oh God, I overslept. My place is such a mess. Want something to eat?") but utterly compelling. We connected like two magnets. A quick coffee turned into a magical afternoon. We had lots in common, especially uprooting to a new city as mature graduate students, motivated by the death of a loved one (her oldest sister, Jackie; my father, Monty).
As an artist, Melissa's enduring love was working with textiles. She had a flair for seeing beauty in the mundane, and reflected that in her artwork. She collected detritus from the street, explaining she might need it for her work. She was a gleaning genius for beautiful neglected things, addicted to garage sales and thrift stores. She was a zaftig magpie.
In 1998, we moved with our three cats to my hometown, Toronto. Melissa was granted landed immigrant status on compassionate grounds of not separating us. We knew that Canada recognized the rights of gay and lesbian couples, well before gay marriage; the United States had no such compassion for us. Her application was helped by her qualification as a macramé instructor – apparently Canada had a shortage in that area. She proudly became a citizen in 2004.
Her intuition, creative skills, and straight-shooting personality made her a great teacher in the textile department at Sheridan College, and at video-art workshops with queer youth and high school students.
In 1999, Melissa was diagnosed with a rare bone marrow disorder but had no symptoms. Four years later, she suffered a blood clot to her liver and was saved by emergency surgery. Being given a second chance was a medical miracle but, like the sword of Damocles, she lived with the knowledge that the disease would progress to a life-threatening stage.
Over the next 12 years she continued teaching, produced art videos that screened at international festivals, designed a room at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel, exhibited artwork in galleries, and created a delightful mural for the children's section at the Kitchener Public Library. She also opened a popular vintage store on Queen Street West, aptly named The Melissa. Her store attracted an adoring clientele, but after 16 months she was forced to close because of fatigue.
In 2014, Melissa participated in an art residency at Elsewhere, a thrift store-turned-museum in Greensboro, N.C. She made three quilt-sized textile pieces for the museum, but returned home in a weakened state, in severe pain. The disease had progressed. She endured 10 months of debilitating pain treatments, and palliative home care until she was admitted to hospice. Despite the overwhelming hardship and heartbreak, the intimacy we shared during this time drew us closer than ever.
Fittingly, she has been honoured by the Textile Museum of Canada, which has launched the Melissa Levin Emerging Artist Program in her memory.
Nina Levitt is Melissa's life partner of nearly 20 years.