Postcard Image: Then and Now by Virginia A. Spiegel
104” x 31”
Hand-painted and  hand-dyed white cotton fabric, thread, acrylic paint.
2000 - 2006 (?)

Then and Now is a work that I first “completed” and showed in a solo show in 2000.  But its first incarnation was a very plain arrangement of hand-painted and hand-dyed fabric strips. For the past six years, Then and Now is brought out almost every time I paint fabric and a new layer of meaning and detail is added to it.  Its surface reveals and conceals my changing interests and passions – screen-printing, printing with found objects, printing with found stencils, printing with commercial number stencils, printing with my own carved stamps and on and on.  It is dangerous to keep adding to an artwork and at times I have put it away, convinced that I had gone too far.  But the next time I take it out, it surprises me anew with its buried mysteries and ever-changing face.  It is both a history and a reflection of my artistic life.

Then and Now - Detail