'Isa conveys her passion and deep commitment to finding the authentic connection with ‘that of God’ – or you could say, the ‘blank canvas’ – within.' Photo: Book cover of Conversations with a Blank Canvas by Isa Levy
Conversations with a Blank Canvas by Isa Levy
Author: Isa Levy. Review by Joanna Godfrey Wood
Who is Isa L Levy? Difficult to define. Her brave memoir, Conversations with a Blank Canvas, explores the decades of her life from actor to artist, to arts psychotherapist, with many more labels in between. In 1998 she walked through the doors of her first Quaker Meeting after a chance encounter with a fourth-generation Quaker, who she never bumped into again. He was to buy a painting from her that very day but, more importantly, he was a catalyst for the birth of a vital new chapter in her life. It was very evident to Isa that he was a person who was living his life to the full and allowing opportunities to flow. This quality deeply impressed her – his spontaneous engagement with life was clear to see.
As a non-conformist Jewish woman who had not fitted easily into her background, Isa experienced life as an outsider, feeling she didn’t belong anywhere. But having walked into that Quaker Meeting it has since become a very significant part of her life, bringing her the stability, community and spirituality of regular silent meetings.
Isa uses the decades of her life to create a neat and engaging format for her story, leading us from her birth, then examining it in ten-year chunks, right up to the present day. As a lifelong Quaker myself, and coming from a family deeply involved in the world of art, colour and creativity, I have long been aware that the arts have not always been part of the Quaker vision. Isa, however, has played an important role in helping to bring creativity and Quakerism together. In 2015 she exhibited a selection of her paintings, with two other female Quaker artists, at St Martin-in-the-Fields, in the heart of London. There, many saw how Quakerism and creativity were part of ‘that of God’. Today, she encourages others, in her work as an arts psychotherapist, to explore and be curious about their own inner worlds and allow the ‘colour’ of a full palette to be fully expressed.
In this compelling book, Isa conveys her passion and deep commitment to finding the authentic connection with ‘that of God’ – or you could say, the ‘blank canvas’ – within. The book enables us all to look more deeply into our own blank canvasses, as we can all do in Meetings for Worship and in our daily lives. This is an inspiring book, which will help all of us, whether artists or otherwise, to make the very most of our personal creativity. She demonstrates how Quakerism can help us all to live our lives to the best of our abilities, using our gifts, talents and creative energy, and to encourage into the Light some we didn’t even know we had.
