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.

Cyber Fyber ATC

I swore I would never make another postcard after the hundreds for FFAC’s Postcard Project and I’m not too keen on ATCs at the moment either. But how could I resist an artist who makes 163 fiber postcards and 130 fiber ATCs and then commits to exchanging them all, mounting an exhibition of those received in exchange at a gallery, blogging about the whole process and more?

Here’s the official blurb from Susan Lenz about her CyberFiber activities:

CYBER FYBER is an exhibition of international fiber art scheduled for January 8th through 20th, 2009 at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, USA. The brainchild of Susan Lenz, this exhibit will focus on the supportive, global community of fiber artists with whom Susan regularly shares new techniques, contemporary approaches to textiles, and finished work by Internet websites and blogs. The exhibition will include three primary areas: Fiber ATCs (Artist Trading Cards); fiber postcards; and the work of several invited artists. The exhibition will also include FIBER DAY and ATC trading day. From the beginning, Susan Lenz is documenting CYBER FYBER on a blog/journal.

If you are a fiber artist who has an active website or blog, go visit Cyber Fyber and celebrate Susan’s vision by participating.

I have a soft spot in my heart for artists who have a vision (a mission!) and are willing to do what ever it takes to make it happen. I sent artwork to the International Fiber Collaboration for covering a gas station and now I am supporting Cyber Fyber by exchanging the postcard below and the ATC at the top of this post.

Postcard for Cyber Fyber
Materials include velvet fabric threads (a friend sent me the frayed edges from her work with velvet scarves), tulle, Mistyfuse, hand-painted fabric, Tyvek, tissue paper, gel medium, acrylic paint, watercolor paper, colored pencil, ink, mystery sparkly stuff from my bag of sparkly stuff, ribbon yarn, thread.
Techniques: Make a sandwich of painted fabric, Mistyfuse, velvet, sparkly stuff, tulle - cover with Teflon sheet and fuse. Stitch. Cut petals from painted/screenprinted paper that has been collaged with Tyvek, tissue paper. Stitch. Apply colored pencil and marker. Edge with ribbon yarn. Sew to mat board.

Cyber Fyber ATC - Shown at top of post
Constructed from pieces of collage used in postcard. Sew silver piping to edges of two pieces, zigzag stitch the two pieces together. Cut. Collage. Stitch. Sew to cardstock.

July 26

A sincere thank you to everyone who took time to answer my little opinion survey marking the celebration of over a million hits last year. I appreciate all the suggestions and comments.

I do ask your patience this year while I work on a series for entry to Quilt National. Their rules about what constitutes publication are byzantine and so I probably won’t be showing a lot of art-in-progress until I’m sure what pieces will be my entries. Or, at least, I’m ever-hopeful I will have entries.

But, as you know, there is always something interesting going on in my artworld and I look forward to sharing it with you on my blogs and website.

The winner of the random drawing among the survey takers for the collage shown above is Gisela Towner. You can visit her blog here.