Erin E. Castellan

Region: South

Website: http://erinecastellan.com/

City / State: Republic, WA

In this digital age of slick screens and quick images, I create physical images that promote slow viewing experiences and intimate, tactile engagements. I am interested in the idea of slow seeing. I am particularly interested in how efforts to slow and carefully examine the physical world can connect humans to their surroundings with empathy and compassion.

These images cannot be known in an instant. Tactile curiosities, optical illusions, and relationships that connect across forms are slowly revealed to viewers who take their time in looking. My process, combining paint with hand-embroidery, beading, and knitting, is labor-intensive. I consider how accumulative fiber processes and the measurable time I put into each work may influence not only the length but also the quality of a viewer’s perceptual involvement. For example, I believe viewers become entangled in visually picking apart the minute details of embroidered stitches, but their captivation may also be driven by a desire for the intimacy and human interaction that is embodied in each stitch.