About the Artist
Photo by Nancy J. Spiegel Rosman
About the Artist
Virginia A. Spiegel exhibits in the U.S. and internationally in museums, art centers, and galleries. Her artwork is held in private and permanent collections and is featured in magazines and books. Spiegel is the founder of Fiberart For A Cause, raising over $220,000 for the American Cancer Society. Her book of essays is Wild at the Edges: Inspiration from a Creative Life.
Artist Statement
My artwork, focusing on Nature and the enviroment, is most often collaged paper and/or cloth, multi-layered, and stitched. My artwork reflects the fact that beauty is in the details of Nature which take time to appreciate. I admire and attempt to emulate the power of Nature to make complex forms from simple materials and to endlessly recycle materials.
The main theme of my artwork is that Nature is more powerful and more important than mere humans. We have lessons to learn from Nature about the brevity of our human lives, the beauty of everyday life, and the cycles of life and death.
I open a dialogue about what/how I want to create by “making” my own cloth beginning with plain white or black cloth. I use hand-painting, screen and relief printing, and other surface design techniques to create cloth that already has a story attached to it before I begin collaging or stitching it. I use stitching, by hand and machine, to add texture, depth, and meaning. I work spontaneously, but with a one-sentence statement of purpose to guide me as I work on a specific artwork or series.
The seventeen wilderness canoeing trips I have taken with my sister since 2002 have greatly influenced my work. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (a million acres of wilderness along the Minnesota/Canadian border) is isolated, challenging, and full of inspiration. Much of my work is based on a specific place, emotion, and memory from our journeys expressed in an abstract landscape. (Why the Boundary Waters?)
When not working on a series, I often create one-off artwork to comment on environmental and social issues such as the avian slaughter caused by cell phone towers, over-consumption leading to excess garbage (see also The Garbage Day Project), and the reliance on computers over human contact.
I live by choice in a rural area. My artwork is influenced by the Midwestern fields of gold or green stretching toward the long horizon, the textural qualities of our native trees, and the contrast between the exuberance of our summers and the silence of our winters. I find daily inspiration in my one-acre landscape garden, a Certified Wildlife Habitat, which I photograph on almost a daily basis.
