Farrell Levy

I have always been a creative person. I attended the Cooper Union, an art college in New York City. Though I have been making art since then, I made my living as a professional film editor. As an editor, I worked on movies and television shows such as Dirty Dancing, Across the Tracks, Primal Fear, NYPD Blue, Criminal MInds, Nashville and Julia. I also was a founder of a Women’s History project called Look What She Did, which highlights short films of amazing women who have made a difference in all spheres of society. I have had Parkinson’s since 2013 at age 63, and while I continued to work in the film business for another 10 years, I had always planned on transitioning to my own projects that were not film related. In 2019 I decided to officially take less work and my art production increased. Then the pandemic happened, leaving me a lot of time. I saw an opportunity to document those days in the form of a graphic memoir, combining my paintings, drawings, collages, photos and writing to capture my own Parkinson’s experience as well as all that was going on in my family, my community and the world during that period. This project, now at over 250 9″ X 12″ pages, gave me a purpose during that uncertain and troubling period. It also inspired me to create a smaller book, “AND YET,” which I call a “graphic offering,” in which, through writing, paintings and drawings, I talk about living a fulfilling life with Parkinson’s. I self-published the book and was very gratified to hear from so many readers that they are inspired by it. I am particularly interested in combining art and writing to make pieces that convey a message of agency and determination in spite of obstacles. I am currently working on a book about my 102 year old mother who did not have PD, but lived life joyfully in spite of her declining health.