Marlk Levin bases his aesthetic on nature's small wonders such as flowers, leaves, and fruit, as well as the female form. He appreciates soft, sensual forms that have an interplay of curves and movement. He creates with solid wood for its intrinsic value, virility, and rapidity of execution, with the grain and beauty of the wood having little influence on the initial design concept. He visualizes a new work in matte black and believes that if a piece has a presence draped in black, and if the work is executed with deftness and passion, then the beauty of the wood will reveal itself. He builds much of his work using the stack lamination process where smaller pieces of wood are glued together to form much larger pieces or "blanks". This stack lamination process provides strength, scale, and endless artistic possibilities. Once the blank is completed, he roughs out the work with chainsaws and automobile disk grinders. As the final form emerges, he tapers to more delicate power tools and finally hand tools to define the details and the perfectly baby-butt smooth curved surfaces. He learned woodworking in junior high school industrial arts, and had his first commission, a blanket chest, while a high school senior. At college, he studied under Bobby Falwell, a graduate student of Wendell Castle. Immediately upon graduating college, he opened his shop in Evanston, Illinois. In 2012, after a few decades, detours, and zigging when he should have zagged, he set up his current shop in Albuquerque, NM.

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