Interesting Links > In The News

Controlling Crickets, published October 3rd, 2003

As we enter the autumn season, temperatures begin to drop and rainfall levels moderate. Leaves begin to fall to the ground and effectively act as mulch. This organic matter retains moisture and serves to insulate the ground, making leaf litter an ideal pest ecosystem. Combining these factors with insect pests trying to enter structures to gain a foothold for the winter, many homes can effectively become a pest's winter residence. Perhaps the most common insect "house guests" this time of year are crickets. Clients will often describe them to me as jumping spiders. The house and field crickets, in particular, have extraordinary leaping ability, particularly in the warmth of basement boiler and laundry rooms where they thrive. It is the cricket's "musical ability" however, for which it is best known. In fact, in China and Japan crickets are often placed in beautiful ornate cages so they can serenade a home. It is the adult male only who sings, by the friction of his upper wings on each other. Please note the chirping sound does not necessarily indicate a cricket; on more than one occasion I've "solved" this problem for a client by changing or removing a weak battery in their smoke detector! The sounds are virtually identical. Conversely, not all crickets chirp. The camel cricket, very common in the Northeast, is silent.

Homeowners can help deter these pests by these simple steps:

• Minimize excess leaf litter and mulch, particularly against the house.

• Avoid storage of firewood, bricks, lumber, etc. against the house.

• Change exterior lighting from mercury vapor to sodium vapor, or yellow insect lights. Also, redirect them away from the house.

• Ensure doors, windows and utility entry points are tightly sealed.

• Contact a pest management professional; he or she can tailor an appropriate treatment strategy if needed.

(Great Neck resident Irwin T. Levy is president of Aladdin Pest Control, Garden City Park. He can be reached at 516-248-6350 or aladdinpestcontrol@gmail.com)

________________________

Pest Management, published November 27th, 2003

Along with crickets, which I described in my previous article, the house mouse is another all too prevalent fall invader. As temperatures drop, mice attempt to enter structures for what I refer to as the Survival Triangle; food, water and shelter. Our home and work environments pro vide those necessities to us; unfortunately, it provides it to mice as well. Mice only live for about one year, but are prolific breeders, sexually mature at 35 days, and capable of having its first litter of six to eight pups at 60 days old. With up to eight litters per year possible, one pair of mice and their offspring could potentially translate into 500 mice in one year.

Though not particularly intelligent creatures, they do have survival skills. Mice are excellent jumpers, with the ability to leap about one-foot up and six-feet down without injury. They can also climb straight up a wall in seconds. Their most extraordinary feat, however, is their ability to squeeze through a 3/8-inch opening. Mice and their droppings have been linked to a variety of diseases, salmonella, E.coli and hantavirus to name but a few.

• Home and business owners can help prevent mice with some basic steps:

• Keep exterior garbage and recycling areas clean. Be sure pails are tightly closed.

• Be sure windows and doors are tightly fitted. Seal up exterior openings, especially hose spigots, phone, cable, electrical and other utility lines.

• Landscape installations should be at least one-foot from a building. If possible, low-growing shrubs such as junipers should be avoided as rodents frequently burrow beneath them.

• Contact a Pest Management Professional. He or she can tailor an appropriate treatment strategy if needed.

(Great Neck resident Irwin T. Levy is president of Aladdin Pest Control, Garden City Park. He can be reached at 516-248-6350 or aladdinpestcontrol@gmail.com)

________________________

Irwin Levy Organizes Art Exhibit - SOLAR Presents "Mood Swings", published June 4th, 2009

Great Neck resident Irwin Levy presents "Mood Swings," a collector's choice group art exhibition, at SOLAR Gallery in East Hampton. The show runs from June 13 through Aug. 3, with visiting hours by appointment.

An exhibition of works in a number of mediums, including paintings, photographs, prints and mixed media sculptures by 17 artists, "Mood Swings" is the first Collector's Choice show organized at Solar. Selected by Irwin Levy, the works in the exhibition are drawn from this collector's experience and knowledge of works by artists from Solar's own holdings as well as those he has come into contact with mainly in the Hamptons art scene through the years.

Mr. Levy selected some of his favorite artists from past shows at Solar, including in his proposal works by Eduardo Barcenas, Astolfo Funes, Deborah Riley, Lillie Talmor, Aurelio Torres, and Alejandra Villasmil. Drawing from his experiences and encounters with artists on Long Island and on the East End in particular, Mr. Levy chose Mary Ellen Bartley, Matt Brophy, Joe Eschenberg, Grant Haffner, Eileen Hickey-Hulme, Bill Kiriazis, Jennifer Meihofer, Cristen Motty, Ted Nemeth, Zoe Pennebalcer, and Stephen Soreff. This is an unprecedented mix of artists and artwork at Solar, a hybrid, cross-cultural, multimedia, multi-message, cross-generational encounter that well-reflects the title theme of the show and resonates also with our current social, political, and economic climate.

Mr. Levy stated: “Mood Swings” reflects our perception of and reaction to all forms of stimuli. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. United we stand, divided we fall. Yes, we can...

From Celebration of Life to Darkness of Spirit and those points between," Mood Swing visits the place where invisible barriers cease to exist. Because we have a soul, the "Mood Swings" journey ends there.

A longtime Great Neck resident (with his wife and two daughters), as well as a part time resident of the Springs, in East Hampton since the late '80s, Irwin Levy has been collecting, it would seem, all his life: from local lore and historical items, to agricultural tools and hand-painted commercial signs, to contemporary art. Mr. Levy's curiosity and excitement are boundless and the exhibition portrays this constant search and desire. "Mood Swings" not only reflects a small, dynamic cross-section of current art, it ultimately is an enlightening representation of the very true spirit of collecting defined by passion, inspiration, and evolution.

For further information and images, contact Esperanza at info@artsolar.com or 631.907.8422.

________________________

Plaza Gallery: "The Hamptons and Beyond: An Artistic Journey", published October 15th, 2009

Great Neck resident Irwin T. Levy is the curator of the upcoming exhibit “The Hamptons and Beyond: An Anistic Journey.” opening Wednesday Oct. 21, at the Village of Great Neck Plaza Wllage Hall, 2 Gussack Plaza. The opening reception is from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Mr. Levy is again collaborating with Esperanza Leon, owner of SOLAR Art and Design, East Hampton. SOLAR was the venue for Mood Swings, the Collector's Choice exhibit that Mr. Levy curated this past summer.

Mr. Levy told the Great Neck Record: Historically, artists have been drawn by the special quality of the East End's light. For me, that light illuminates a place unmatched in physical beauty anywhere in the world. Seamlessly, dune scape meets forest, farmland meets shore. A world class resort in summer transforming back to the country in autumn. A profound sense of place, where families here for generations live on streets named for their ancestors. The three artists in ‘The Hamptons and Beyond: An Artistic Journey,’ Terry Elkins, Grant Haffner and Dalton Portella, were not born here, but do call it home. Their work illustrates a lasting respect for both the beauty and unique quality of life this place represents. This is our East End. This is our Hamptons."

The Hamptons and Beyond: An Artistic Journey features three East End Artists. Terry Elkins received his MFA from the University of Houston in 1978 and has lived in Bridgehampton since 1987. His work has been exhibited both domestically and abroad, and is in numerous public and private collections. Terry has been the recipient of two Pollack-Krasner foundation awards, and teaches at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton.

Grant Haffner was raised in the art Community of Springs, in East Hampton, and the twisting roads and landscapes of the South Fork dominate his paintings. Utilizing a Polaroid camera, he studies the angles and landscape, revealing the intersection of sky and road. The slightly exaggerated poles and power lines are primary to these compositions. Grant is committed to exploring these horizons, which appear to have no beginning or end. Grant was the winner of the prestigious Hios award for best landscape at Guild Hall’s Member Exhibit in both 2007 and 2008.

Dalton Portella was born in Miami, and lived in Brazil, California and New York before moving to Montauk in 2001. In his Artists Statement, Dalton feels in art, the acceptance of new technologies and mediums is essential for innovation and growth. A watercolor will turn into a digital piece, which will in turn become a work on canvas. A work on canvas will be combined with photography and transferred to paper where it will then be worked with pastel, showing how a change in texture, composition, size, medium or the mark will change our response to the piece. Dalton wants the viewer to follow the transformation across these various mediums and conjure up their own interpretations, resulting in work that provokes thought and evokes emotion.

The public is invited to the opening reception and to view the exhibit weekdays during Plaza office hours. Refreshments will be provided.

For further information and images, contact Esperanza at info@artsolar.com or 631.907.8422.

________________________

The Guest Curator, published January 28th, 2010

I guess it all began circa 2004. I finally pulled the trigger on a painting I’d seen a year (a year!) earlier at a South Fork art gallery.

I’ve bought houses, a few, in what seemed like a matter of minutes, thankfully without regret. Yet the analysis, the pondering, the sheer dissection of this painting dominated my thoughts as I vacillated back and forth.

But buy it I did, and the ice was now broken, and the floodgates were, too. I began attending art openings throughout the East End. I took those little postcards, which I saved, even hung some up in picture frames found at yard sales. I’d go to the artist or gallery Web site and view more images. I began to withdraw from the safety zone of the pretty landscapes, moving into a new terrain of more introspective, thought-provoking works.

And I bought. A lot. And often. Sometimes at art fairs in New York, sometimes from other galleries, but mostly from that South Fork gallery. The director and I would engage in dialogues about art, usually via e-mail. We discussed where my collection was, the direction it was going in, the goals I had for it.

The next step was a question so subtle I barely remember the director first asking it last year: Would you consider curating an exhibit at South Fork?

History repeats itself. It took just as long to accept this most generous offer as it did to buy that first painting. The exhibition’s theme was a reflection of the state of affairs around us. Thus, “Mood Swings” was born. I looked at the artists’ works hanging in my home, and at those I’d admired but not yet owned other than as the postcards in my drawers, or works on my mind.

I Googled artists’ names, found their Web sites, and e-mailed them about my plans for this exhibit, with requests for images to analyze, to ponder, to dissect (again). I asked with all the humility I could muster if they would give me the opportunity to consider their work for inclusion in the exhibit, knowing full well that the spatial considerations were yet to be determined.

I received the most gracious replies, expressions of gratitude for my appreciation of their work, and was often told how flattered they were to be considered for the exhibit. The real truth, however, is that the one being flattered was me. I was not, and still am not, an art professional. The reality that my concept was to become a reality was extraordinary. 

I fed off the energy of this endeavor, finding it both infectious and intoxicating. I took the floor plan and began curating the exhibit on paper like a jigsaw puzzle. I knew there was much tweaking to be done, but a basic blueprint was better then nothing.

It was now time for the director and me to meet — live, in person — with the artists I had selected, and with their works. I recall our first visits. We departed on an overcast April morning. There were two photographers and two painters on the agenda.   

We were welcomed into their homes, their studios, which in some cases were their den or dining room table. The JPEG images came to life in front of me, and so did the artists’ intentions. The oral histories of their work, and in some cases their lives, became an integral, meaningful part of this entire process.

Old friendships were renewed, new ones begun. The artists, the director, and I were now permanently linked, and “Mood Swings” was the tie that bound us together. I was, and continue to be, moved by this very thought.

The artists began delivering their works, and the director and I began the installation eight days before the opening. Lest anyone think it was a matter of merely hammering in a few nails, they are sadly mistaken. We hung the work, and then rehung it because it should have been a quarter-inch higher, or an eighth of an inch to the right.

We then had to spackle and touch up the paint on the walls. We did not finish until the following day. The director, ever the cool professional, stood back, smiled, and pronounced our work complete.

As for my reaction, I was in awe. It was not just that I was seeing something conceptual coming to life. It was truly a labor of love before my eyes, looking back at me.

The opening was now less than a week away. Our ongoing publicity for the event was now full steam ahead. Postcard invitations, e-mail blasts, phone calls, multiple Facebook pages and invitations, and press releases to print and Internet media outlets. A live radio interview on WLIU’s “In the Morning With Bonnie Grice,” a rush all its own that went better than I ever dreamed, with friends and family near and far listening online.

With the opening now a few hours away, the director and I made some final adjustments. I went home to try to get some rest, but my adrenaline refused to allow it.

The opening. I arrived early, of course, tingling with anticipation. There was an unusually large number of competing events that night. Numerous openings in Springs, Sag Harbor, not to mention both Guild Hall and the Clinton Academy.

But people did arrive. And kept arriving. Many of the 17 artists of “Mood Swings” were there, as were their friends and family. Crowded became jammed, jammed became standing room only. The atmosphere was electric, immersed in energy. The room became a blur. I attempted to speak to all who attended, yet every conversation was abbreviated because another had to begin. I ate and drank nothing. It didn’t matter.

What did was this epiphany: I was inside a brief moment in time, experiencing live what I already knew to be a memory in my mind for now and forever.

Irwin T. Levy lives in Great Neck and has been a part-time resident of Springs since 1989. He has been an art collector for nearly 10 years.

Phone: 516-248-6350 | Fax: 516-403-1878

2155 Jericho Turnpike, Garden City Park, NY 11040