Marilyn Levine was a master of trompe l’oeil whose best known creations were her hyper-realistic leather objects made of clay. These works, which often focused on items such as shoes, bags, and jackets, exhibit a stunning attention to detail. In a painstaking and lengthy process, Levine carefully constructed stitching, folds, and seams as well as signs of wear. Levine said: “Leather is nice, because more than any other material, it forms a record of its own history. It develops permanent wrinkles, it takes on the shape of the wearer, it records areas of abrasion, and it records areas of soil. It therefore becomes an expression of time, evidence of a person’s existence.” For Levine, the scratches, scuff marks, and wrinkles told a story and gave her work a sense of history and humanity.