Virginia A. Spiegel

Folio 1, page 1

The best books I read are somewhat ambiguous.  They force readers to add their own interpretation to the story being told. I am currently very interested in exploring the limits of ambiguity in my art. See all the artwork here.  This series is a folio of “pages” based on ten-word poem. Sometimes the word is visible on the page; sometimes layers have obscured it. I’m not divulging the poem as I wanted you to be able to imagine your own story.  But if you want to know the word on a particular “page,” I would, of course, share. And I can tell you that the poem is entitled Threads.

Folio 1, Page 10

One Cause – The Fight Against Cancer.

One Wednesday – February 16, 2011.

One Hundred Collages – Created for this event by an all-star lineup of artists:

Natalya Aikens
Pamela Allen
Laura Ann Beehler
Liz Berg
Pokey Bolton
Laura Cater-Woods
Jette Clover
Jane Davila
Jane Dunnewold
Jamie Fingal
Gloria Hansen
Leslie Tucker Jenison
Lyric Kinard
Jeanelle McCall
Linda Teddlie Minton
Karen Stiehl Osborn
BJ Parady
Judy Perez
Cynthia St. Charles
Virginia A. Spiegel

The goal – Raise $8,000 for the American Cancer Society in just one day.

More details and a preview of artwork here.

Fiberart For A Cause has already donated over $205,000 to the American Cancer Society through the generosity of fiber artists and their patrons.

Logo by Jeanelle McCall.

International Quilt Festival – Houston
November 4-7, 2010

It’s the Olympics of the quilt world with over 50,000 people attending each year. I’m honored to have my artwork showing in these exhibits:

1. Studio Art Quilt Associates’ Creative Force 2010
Supported by a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

Boundary Waters 50
Photo by Deidre Adams
Catalog available from the SAQA Store

2. Beneath The Surface –  Juried Invitational

Boundary Waters 52 (Knowing)
Photo by Deidre Adams
Catalog available.

3. 500 Art Quilts – Featuring artwork from the book 500 Art Quilts

Boundary Waters 21 from the Collection of Carol J. Moore

4.  Eye of the Quilter:  Inspiration – A photography exhibit with the theme of reflections.

This is a sister photo to the one accepted to the exhibit.

5.  Sightlines

I happily served as juror for Sightlines and was honored to choose the fourteen artists.  Each artist was invited to create an installation of artworks featuring a sightline linking all the artwork in the exhibit.  Each artist chose her own themes and created five to eight artworks, including four 8×8″ linking pieces, covering a ten foot wide space. Perhaps the required continuous line provided provocation, both conscious and unconscious, to the artists to focus on time, personal history, and memory.

Hardcover catalog with six-page gatefold showcasing the exhibit as it will be shown is available.

Please note that Clairan Ferrano is the Managing Curator of the exhibit.  The tACTile group of Australia introduced this concept to SAQA with an exhibit entitled eyeline.

It’s not very often that you can say a catalog in the art quilt world is actually unusual, but this one is. The Sightlines’ exhibit catalog is 64 pages, hardcover, with 6-page gatefold that opens in the center showcasing the ENTIRE exhibit as it will be shown on exhibit.  The catalog was designed by Deidre Adams with all photography by Gregory Case.  The catalog is available from the Studio Art Quilt Associates’ store here.

The exhibit will be premiering at International Quilt Festival in Houston this week.  You can preview and purchase the artwork here.

The publication of this catalog was supported by a generous donation from Herb Anhaltzer, “in memory of Mary Anhaltzer, who wanted to put art quilts on the map.”   In 1999, Mary opened “Thirteen Moons Gallery, the first and only gallery in Sante Fe (and quite possibly the country) to focus on the hot “new” medium of the art quilt.”

Each artist has a four-page spread with an image of their installation, detail image, artist statement, and artist bio.   The artists include:

Britta Ankenbauer
Regina Benson
Shelley Brenner Baird
Yael David-Cohen
Linda Colsh
Sue Dennis
Anne Helmericks-Louder
Fulvia Luciano
Wendy Lugg
Kathy Nida
Pat Owoc
Mirjam Pet-Jacobs
Jayne Willoughby Scott
Leni Levenson Wiener

There is also a curator’s introduction by me, the person who was lucky enough to be chosen to invite the artists.  I emphasize in my statement that I didn’t want artists who conceived of the sightline as a gimmick, but rather those who would be able to subsume it under a larger philosophical statement.  The artists succeeded beyond my wildest hopes.

The exhibit itself is unique in that each of fourteen artists created a complete installation of five to eight artworks to fill a ten-foot space with only one inch between artworks.  Each installation is linked to the next by two eight inch squares before and after the main artworks.  All the artwork have a line, literal or implied running through them  It sounds confusing, but here is Pat Owoc’s installation:

Above is a piece I am working on for the Surface Design Association’s member show. This is about the fourth layer – red hemp string stitched down over the other layers.  Terrible angle for a photo, I know, but I had the end of it under the needle.

This is only a background for more stitching, painting, and screenprinting. The theme for the exhibit is Merge and Flow. I am working with photos from the Boundary Waters printed on organza and fused to other painted fabrics.  My artist statement will be about how the Boundary Waters has merged with my own life in totally unexpected ways.

This is my work table’s “compost pile.”  I am almost done with ten mixed-media collages for a fundraiser to be announced in November which is why I’m not showing more of the work-in-progress here.  Safe to say, though, that they are in the Palimpsest series vein.