Artist's Sketched Moments Chronicle a Lifetime of Memories

Byron Levy walked through life, sketchbook in hand. While his career was in business rather than art, he filled book upon book with daily life moments and created a vast collection of artworks over the decades, amounting to more than 3,000 paintings and drawings, as well as 100 sketchbooks. Although Byron passed away in 2015 at the age 94, his lifelong artistic legacy lives on thanks to his family. This month, his son and Hancock resident Byron "Ron" Levy will host an exhibit of Byron's New England-based watercolor pieces in Nelson, inside the old library building. Located nearby the current Nelson library, "The Old Library" at 5 Center Pond Road is now a nonprofit organization with the goal of holding artistic, literary, cultural, musical and conservation-related events to contribute to the cultural vitality of Nelson. Ron said his wife's family has summered in Nelson for more than a century and Lynn Francis, also an artist and resident, was involved in the forming of the nonprofit and is helping to host the exhibit. Titled "Woods and Water: New England Scenes, 1955-2008," it will include more than 20 pieces Byron painted during his vacations to New Hampshire and Maine. The exhibit will open on Friday, July 19, with a reception from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., and will be on display through July 28 with set hours (Saturdays and Sundays, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.; Mondays and Fridays, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.; Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.). "Dad was always enchanted by this area of the country because it was so different from Louisiana," Ron explained. "We traveled here often as a family." Byron was born and raised in New Orleans, where he lived until the catastrophic flooding of the city caused by Hurricane Katrina. The people and places of New Orleans were some of his favorite subjects and his work reflects a fascination with both the historical buildings and the talented jazz musicians he saw there. He was known to sketch regularly at Preservation Hall when it opened in the 1960s, primarily on newsprint, placards or posters. The story goes that he continued sketching there every weekend until he was forbidden to draw there by management, perhaps due to a lack of control they felt over the works he produced. Undeterred, he simply moved on to new locations. The sights and scenery of coastal living were also dominant themes of his artwork that often captured the boats and beaches of Louisiana and nearby Florida. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and was stationed in Guam as the war came to an end. The sketchbooks he kept during that time provide an intimate glimpse of his unique war experience, including one titled "The Long Wait" that totaled 47 pages. "He was a businessman all his life," Ron said of his father. "He painted since he was young but did not make a living from it. He just enjoyed keeping busy and making things." Like the set of cardboard wings that he constructed for Ron as a child to fasten to his bicycle handlebars in the hopes of taking flight. In an effort to capture memories like this one, Ron's son, Colin Levy, an animator who has previously worked doing layout for Pixar, produced a short, (about four minutes) hand-drawn documentary film about his grandfather that was published as a New York Times Op-Doc in 2018. The film utilizes audio clips from phone conversations between Ron and Colin that reflect on memories of Byron and his endless creativity. Ron said the film received an amazing response at the time it was released, prompting a website and social media pages. His memory books chronicle a lifetime of moments, from the significant to the ordinary. "He'd say, 'tell me something else you recall' and he kept a list of those memories that he'd draw in random fashion and cross off," Ron explained. "He always had a sketchbook in his hands. Two of my sons are artists because he handed them blank sketchbooks." While he's been in discussions with The National WWII Museum in New Orleans about exhibiting his father's Guam sketchbooks, his true dilemma, he says, is what to do with the thousands of paintings that now sit in his Hancock basement. "I'm facing the challenge of what to do with this really interesting collection while also preserving and establishing his legacy," Ron said. "It's daunting. This exhibit is a way to start doing that." *** For more information about the exhibit or to schedule an appointment for viewing outside of the hours mentioned above, contact ronsother@hotmail.com. Find "The Old Library" on Facebook at facebook.com/nelson03457. To view a selection of Byron Levy's artwork online, visit grampssketches.com or find more on Instagram @grampssketches. Colin Levy's short film can be watched online at colinlevy.com/my-grandfathers-memory-book.