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Dorothy Bunny Bowen explores metaphors for life in 'Mind the Web'
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Are we the spider or the fly?
A new multimedia exhibit at the Wild Hearts Gallery, “Bunny Bowen: Mind the Web,” focuses on that question.
Dorothy Bunny Bowen drew inspiration for the exhibit from a saying from her childhood: “stamp a white horse for luck,” and the day she watched a spider repair its web over and over. She felt a connection to it, finding a metaphor for life.
“When you try to fix one thing, something else falls apart …” Bowen said. “And so that was the way I approached this show, was to think about all the creatures in the web. And that we are part of it.”
“Mind the Web” centers around the signature piece titled, “We Have Nets to Mend,” which is a rozome on kimono silk. Rozome is a Japanese wax-resist dyeing technique. The piece was inspired by Bowen aging and coming to terms with how she might not be going out to sea to fish anymore, but be on the shore mending the nets.
Artworks around the theme are ceramic and wood pieces of various animals that Bowen says are a mix of those who are prey and those who prey on others. One other staple piece is a painted panel showing a horse and a boat at sea, titled “And So They Set Out: Stamp a White Horse.”
Bowen pulled from her life to curate the exhibit, going beyond the web with the idea of the white horse and how that saying has been passed down for generations across cultures. She says “stamp a white horse” reminds her of her ancestors who braved the seas and left Scotland after the Battle of Culloden, leaving their home behind.
When her piece “And So They Set Out: Stamp a White Horse” was purchased from the gallery, she had a conversation with the purchaser. Bowen found that while they drew from different life experiences, they both interpreted the painting the same way.
“It amazed me. He didn’t know the story about the white horse, and he didn’t know this about my childhood or anything, but (saw) it was (about) setting off on the new adventure and connecting with the future,” she said.
Bowen hopes that the art she has created will mean as much to others as it does to her and her life.
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“I like to share what I’m thinking about, and you always hope that your art has an impact on somebody else …” Bowen said. “Just making something beautiful in a broken world, I guess that’s a healing thing for me.”
