Lee Area, Muffin Bernstein, Amy Castaño, Jennifer Shaw
December 2-7, 2010
Opening: Saturday Dec 4, 6-9pm
Design Within Reach
3138 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70115
504-891-6520
Hours: 10am to 6pm Daily
“Interwoven” New Works by Muffin Bernstein
Everything is connected to everything.
Interwoven Series is a collection of digital collages with sewing. Each image contains all original imagery.
The work presented as “Interwoven” represents my timeless identity. It encompasses the scope of how my own identity relates to the history of not only my own family but the history of the greater human tribe. We have entered an age where conscious must be re-defined, but that does not mean abandonment of the old. Rather, it means embracing the power of our oldest traditions by embracing the rituals and actions that make us uniquely human, while remembering that we are a part of a closed natural system. Each and every organism, is somehow “interwoven” by the systems on earth. There are several mythological associations with the Spider and her web. While the Celtic people believe the web holds all life, Greeks believe it stands for fate, still some Christians believe its a tool of Satan. Native American myths suggest the spider represents the mother that created all things in nature. There is an ethereal quality surrounding the web, if you are not in the right place, you will not see its beauty. Therefore, I like to stitch into the web to accentuate the creation as well create an ethereal layer which the viewer may miss if they do not stand in the right place or observe closely. The web represents not only the web that catches life and feeds upon it, but also the web within and outside of us. It represents the mental web that blocks us from moving forward and the physical web of paths we choose to get our rewards. The tools of cooking in some images represent man’s rituals as well as industrialization. My webs are new creations symbolizing ethereal moments or the entrapment of death. What would happen if we returned to nature and basic rituals like cooking? What if each of us grew food for ourselves to share and eat with our neighbors? Why have we found our society so far away from nature and nurturing? What is the web that connects us all? Can we strengthen the strands we spin?
About Amy Castaño:
photographer/artist/adventure seeker based in bend, oregon. always searching for a unique viewpoint. . . a different angle. . . something interesting in something ordinary. . . the perfect radiant light. . . or just something beautiful. . . finding art in everything. wielding the tools of the digital darkroom, bringing captured images to life. . . often blurring the line between photograph and painting. typically drawn to scenes one would find in a city: industry. . . architecture. . . telephone wires. . . lines and shapes colliding into one another.
