Legacy of Love and Creativity

The Enchanted World of Artist Amy Zerner

If you are looking for the magical and the mystical, the realm where the subconscious and conscious swim together, enter the land of artist Amy Zerner. With her husband and co-creator, writer Monte Farber, they have built an Enchanted World with more than 50 works sold internationally from books to games and tarot cards, ancient wisdom with a contemporary spin. Zerner’s art encompasses intricate collages both visually stunning and spiritually awakening. The art and artist are intertwined energetically whether it is her tapestries, illustrations, tarot card decks, fashion or jewelry design. 

Zerner who has been in her home in East Hampton since 1967 says it was a twist of fate when her family pulled out a map of New York and she put her finger on Springs. It was home to many abstract expressionists and the house was just around the corner from De Kooning. Since her time in high school where she won an art award at Guild Hall, she has found the area a supportive environment. She sold her first artwork in a local shop to Julie Christie and met the Academy-Award winning set designer Tony Walton who commissioned her to do props for the play Uncle Vanya then the multi layered bedspread in Chicago. She shows regularly at the MM Fine Art Gallery in Southampton.

In 1986 Zerner was awarded a National Endowment of the Arts grant in the Painting category. She was the first artist working in fabric to be so awarded. It provided confirmation for the direction her art was taking. Her home with Farber is now an intricately decorated, inspirational oasis, having added a large studio in 1987 to expand her craft. “People often comment how peaceful they feel here,” she notes.

Zerner’s collages are her personal alchemy of transforming remnants from vintage clothing, religious vestments, ribbons, trims, lace and fabrics sourced everywhere from the Marais in Paris to LVIS in East Hampton. She weaves themes into her tapestry of goddess, astrology, alchemy, mystical places and sacred spaces.

“My work is not premeditated; it is spontaneous,” says Zerner. “I have done preassembly sketches for only two out of the more than one thousand collages I have made. I directly assemble the image on a background fabric, choosing from my vast collection of elements the way a painter chooses her paint. Then I pin it down, and it gets sewn together if it’s fabric and glued if it is paper.” Zerner takes chaos and orders it into a mythical narrative.

Her gorgeous, one-of-a-kind, intricately created robes and jackets have been sold at Bergdorf Goodman for the last 22 years. She recounts, “When I was a little girl, I drew queens and princesses, and now I sell my couture fashion to queens and princesses. One Saudi Arabian princess owns over eighty of my caftans, each one of them different and custom-made for her over several years.” Her robes and jackets have also been collected by Rihanna, Elizabeth Taylor, Patti LaBelle and Shirley MacLaine. In a stressful fashion world when she visits the store not only do they love seeing her designs, they love her and Monte’s energy. Zerner jokes, “Everyone is asking where is Monte and inevitability he is in a fitting room giving someone a tarot card reading.”

Film Producer Annmarie Sairrino of Ammo Entertainment is producing a film about the couple, “Amy & Monte: A Legacy of Love and Creativity.”

It is ultimately a success in life to have your outer world mirror your inner world. Zerner says, “I’m always trying to purify and clarify the imagery in my work. Monte and I feel we want to apply our art to help heal the Earth by helping to heal and empower those who walk upon it, as we learn to heal and empower ourselves.”