Virginia A. Spiegel

Loon Reflections

It’s time for my sister and I to voyage out for our Fall Boundary Water’s trip. We hope to reach our 100th day in the Boundary Waters. But you never know what is going to happen in the Boundary Waters and that is one of its great joys. I’ll be checking back in at the end of September.

Wikipedia has the most information in one spot about the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

However, it doesn’t really tell the story of the sheer immensity of water, of forest, of peace and quiet that makes the BWCAW such a special place. Oh, and did I mention the moose wandering through camp at night, the mud, the bugs, and the portages made of boulders which make carrying 50-pound packs so much fun? It wouldn’t be the BWCAW without a little challenge to it!

The Boundary Waters has inspired several of my series including Boundary Waters and Portage, as well as Journey By Water and an artist book.

I paint all the fabrics I use in my artwork EXCEPT for the fabric I use to back art quilts or other textile art. Painting fabric is so time-consuming that I just can’t bear to use painted fabric for the back of anything.

So I fired up the dye buckets and dyed seven buckets full of fabric in two days (a sampling above). I use the submersion method detailed in Jane Dunneworld’s excellent Complex Cloth.

I always put the dye buckets out on my black driveway for maximum heat retention.

I love the feel and the smell of paint; here’s a previous blog entry about my tips for fabric painting. I, alas, lack an equal affinity for dyeing.

Of course, if it’s Tuesday, there’s something interesting to see at The Garbage Day Project blog.

Today’s bonus photo is of a gladiolus, just past its prime. i recently purchased The Metamorphosis of Flowers by by Marie Perennou and Claude Nuridsany. This gorgeous book, orginally published in France, makes you realize you are missing many stages of beauty if you only look at flowers when they are in bloom.

Just by chance I saw The Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes by Rick Darke in the stacks of my local library last week. I hope to add it to my personal library. It’s pricey, but well worth it if you, like me, see ornamental grasses as a way to decrease your lawn without giving the neighbors a heart attack.

Landscape gardening is an obsession as noted in Beautiful Madness: One Man’s Journey through Other People’s Gardens by James Dodson. Dodson made his living as a golf writer until gardening led him astray. He took a year off, traveled to see public and private gardens, and learned he was not alone in his new-found passion.

Boundary Waters 10
22.5″ x 108″

Great news from Diane Howell in Arizona. Boundary Waters 9 and Boundary Waters 10 will be showing at Art Quilts XII: Currents at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Chandler, AZ from October 12 - December 1, 2007. I’ll be posting more details as the exhibition opening nears.

Many thanks to Pamela Allen, busy artist and teacher, for this lively pre-release review of Art, Nature, Creativity, Life:

I was struck with the beauty of your life in general and the kind of things you draw to the viewer’s attention. All everyday perhaps, but an enormous connection to those of us who may have forgotten (temporarily) the many small joys in life that add up to happiness and contentment.

I not only enjoyed reading about events in your life, but find it really helpful as an artist to see how others translate their experiences into their creative life. On the more practical side, glimpses of your working space and works in progress makes me feel part of something bigger than just working alone in my studio. And your photos are wonderful. Hell, I say to myself, digital photography has revolutionized the photo and why haven’t I taken full advantage of it?

Art, Nature, Creativity, Life will be released in October with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the American Cancer Society. Here is more information.