Virginia A. Spiegel

July 3

Today opens the online portion of the 10th International Collage Exhibition/Exchange, featuring the artwork of 159 artists from around the world. Included are artists from 28 states in the US and Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Japan, New Zealand and Romania.

One collage from each artist will be offered for sale at an exhibition in New Plymouth, New Zealand, but you can also buy it online on the Virtual TART site here.

One collage is also part of a month-long exhibition on the Virtual TART site during April and then becomes part of the collection of the Amarillo Museum of Art in Texas.

The International Collage Exhibition/Exchange is a labor of love by artist Dale Copeland and I appreciate the opportunity to participate.

You can see all of my July collages here.

Boundary Waters 31 (North)

Kim Ritter and Judy B. Dales have invited me to participate in New Focus’ 08 to be held at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay, OR from December 2008 through February 2009.

Artwork for the exhibit can be no larger than 12″ x12.” I am always happy to work in a small format and this was a good piece to work on during the Invitational Reverse Auction as I could stop and start pretty easily. My inspiration came from my photos of the lovely moss and lichens built up on the north side of trees in the Boundary Waters.

It’s also a little joke in that I had always heard that if you are lost in the woods, you can find north by seeing which side of the trees have moss. My experience on testing this theory is that if the woods is thick enough for you to become lost, the trees usually have moss on all sides!

Boundary Waters 31 (North) - Detail

More information will be posted closer to the exhibition opening.

Exhibit postcard featuring Boundary Waters 9 - detail.

What fun! The opening of the Blue exhibition at Translations Gallery in Denver, CO will feature blue M&Ms, blue punch and the Blues for music. The opening is March 21, 5 - 8 p.m. More details here.

Four of my Boundary Waters series pieces are included in this contemporary art exhibition about the literal, abstract, and non-objective representations of the color blue, its symbolism and color theory. Thirteen artists will be displaying their ideas on the color blue in unique art forms including mixed media, silk, collaged canvas, and furniture.

Artists include: Bob Adams, Katherine Allen, Deborah Fell, Ali Pate, Jo Fitsell, Jason Pollen, Betsy Sterling Benjamin, Kevin McCarthy, Anne Bossert, Sue Hammond West, Angie Nordstrum, Cory Cason and Luanne Rimel.

Translations Gallery is Denver’s contemporary fiber art gallery. Visit their main webpage here.

Burned Forest

I shared this photo with readers of Art, Nature, Creativity, Life as my favorite photo of 2007. Although it may be hard to tell in the low resolution required by the web, this photo is full of contrasts, in color and texture. It is a stand of birches in the Boundary Waters that was burned in the big Spring fire. But look more closely.

There’s the green of new life among the black trees. There’s the orange of the turning leaves of autumn providing a subtle reminder of the fire that came before. Among all the death and destruction of the fire, there’s life abounding.

This was my favorite photo of 2007 for not only aesthetic reasons, but for philosophical ones also.

My collages for Collage Mania are based on this photo.

September 1

This collage will be given to the patron who donates most generously to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause (for a single collage or in aggregate during Collage Mania). This prize is to encourage donors, when possible, to donate a little more than the requested minimum of $80 on May 5 and $40 on May 6.

In every case, however, the minimum donation is all that required to “win” a collage. There are three other September collages which will be seen with all other donated collages during the Preview week beginning April 28.

Don’t despair, artists, there are some great prizes being gathered for a random drawing among all artists whose collages are acquired.

More information about Collage Mania here.
Call for Artists-deadline for jpegs April 1.

I have now finished twenty-six small pieces for my new series. Since I can’t show finished pieces at the moment, I will be sharing little glimpses of pieces periodically (See Little Glimpses #1).

I wish I had finished more “components” this past week as 28 will make up one big piece. However, my studio is moving down the hall and chaos reigns at the moment. I’m exchanging my current studio for a smaller room with no through traffic and a closet. Well worth it, I am hoping, once the pain of moving is over.

In any case, let’s start with the photo above. It is hand-painted fabric stamped with pigment ink, free-motion stitched with painted Lutradur squares, and a piece of a photo. I think I mentioned before that I am surprising myself by using cotton batting with these pieces and it encourages me to do more stitching.

This is the box of stamps I keep upstairs (not in the basement where I paint). Not my favorites, but still good for an accent here and there. When I am seriously painting fabric, I use textile paint with my stamps.

This is painted fabric and just a touch of opaque marker. The great fun of these pieces is translating collages I often made in great haste from bits and pieces from magazines into my own fabrics and other materials. The free motion quilting in this piece is my translation of a fragment of a pastel bouquet of flowers.

I want each little piece to tell its own story even if I am the only one who understands it. The working journal of 365 collages is a study of my subconscious. I am studying with great interest what was revealed in the original collages and what I care to reveal in this iteration. I am seriously considering changing my working title from “Like You Give A Damn” to “Third Thoughts.”