Virginia A. Spiegel

Mysteries of Horseshoe Rock 5

See all six of these new artwork here.  Even though they bear a different title, they are really Boundary Waters 54 – 59. Horseshoe Rock is one of my sister and my fav places in the Boundary Waters.  These artworks are definitely based on the specifics of Horseshoe Rock, but they are really about how that place has become almost a talisman for us.  A place to be free, to be awed and humbled by Nature, to be most truly ourselves.

Mysteries of Horseshoe Rock 2

Boundary Waters 44

This is the third of three related Boundary Waters pieces. It features one of my all-time favorite photos of me in the Boundary Waters taken by my sister, Nancy.  I know that I have some coffee in my red mug, I have on my lucky blue bandana, and I’m just sitting there with a blank mind seeing what there is to see. If I’m wound up about something in life, I take out that photo and try to be there again in that calm and silent spot.

Boundary Waters 44 is a 13×12.25″ art quilt mounted to a custom-made 16×16″ stretched canvas.  Materials include white cotton fabric, acrylic paint, artist’s photos inkjet printed on silk organa, ink, colored pencil, graphite, and rayon thread.  It is collaged, colored, lettered and stitched.

Boundary Waters 44 – Detail

Boundary Waters 43

The eagle is, of course, a powerful totem.  But it holds additional meaning for me as it has more than once appeared at a special moment in a Boundary Waters trip and seemed to add a type of blessing to our voyage.  Boundary Waters 43 is also available; see my website for details.

Boundary Waters 42 – Collection of Mary Wise

These three artworks contain some of my favorite images from the Boundary Waters.  You can see some of their other incarnations here.

Fiber Art Alliance, a new group to promote the fiber arts, has now added the second artwork from each of its ten artists for the exhibit Natural Lines.

Boundary Waters 43

My artwork is joined by that of Natalya Aikens, Jeanne Beck, Rosemary Claus-Gray, Karen J. Cooper, Jacque Davis, Becky Howdeshell, Karen Shiehl Osborn, BJ Parady, and Laura Stangel Schmidt.

All the artwork may be viewed in a slideshow with size, price and artist statement.

My first artwork for the exhibit, Boundary Waters 42, is now in the collection of Mary Wise.

These artwork are part, of course, of the ongoing Boundary Waters series. I’m very pleased with these small artworks as they are some of my Boundary Waters themes made visible: the passage of Nature’s time, the brevity of human lives, and the beauty and serenity of a unique world narrowed to tree, rock, sky, water.

Reflecting

Yes, it’s that time of year when I take a break from the computer and dash about to various family events. And, OF COURSE, make time to go to the Boundary Waters with my sister in our 17.5 foot Kevlar canoe.  

This is our thirteenth trip since 2003 and I am still excited to go and see what there is to see.  I love everything about the Boundary Waters — the solitude, the partnership with my sister, sleeping in a tent, carrying everything we need for ten days on our backs, and paddling our lovely golden canoe.  You never know if the days are going to be sunny and bright, dark and stormy, calm or windy, buggy or delightfully not.  Or all of these in one day. I’m sure I will have some photos to share when I return.

In case you need your own Boundary Water fix, some places to visit include:

How I unexpectedly came to love the Boundary Waters (even with a Kleenex for a sleeping bag and a child’s PFD) here.

Artwork:  The Boundary Waters Series 
The Portage Series 
Portage artist book

My sister and I after ten days out in September 2008 with photos of rock, wood, water.

The ultimate journal – our tent!

A wilderness “Andy Goldsworthy” photo challenge

A Sense of Place II, curated by Peg Keeney, is an invitational exhibit for artists working in a series with landscape as their inspiration.  Three artworks are required and they must be vertical in orientation.  That’s always a tough one for me as I love the horizontal, due to, I believe, the Midwestern horizon line.

I knew I needed to choose as inspiration something that in itself was vertical in nature.  Of course, inspiration would come from the Boundary Waters and the three artworks would be Boundary Waters 45 – 47.

I chose for inspiration a photo of the cliffs in the Boundary Waters with Fall color beginning to show (photo above) and laid it next to my sewing machine on hand-dyed cheesecloth and silk in greens and oranges.

I then pulled from my seemingly endless storehouse of scraps and pieces this palette of green, blue-green, orange and brown.

This is one of the three works in progress.  I cropped it to not show the background, so the VERY irregular edges do not show.  I’m going for organic and the pieces are not flat, not square, and pretty darn exuberant.  I’ll be sharing more after I finish them up.