Virginia A. Spiegel

Folio 2  (Black Trees), Page 5
7″h x 5″w matted to 10×8″

Not one, but two new series debut today.

Folio 2 – Black Trees are ten artworks based upon a ten word poem.  There are layers upon layers of fabric and paint — a mysterious story of tree, sky, and branch on each page.

Folio 3 (Woven Words) – Page 5

The second new series up today is Folio 3 – Woven Word.  The poem and artwork focus on doors, windows, and words — so much in our lives concealed and revealed.

The base layer of painted cloth and stitching is almost obscured by the many layers of screen printing.  The final touch is hand stitching with beautiful hand-dyed red embroidery thread from Laura Wasilowski.

In case you missed its debut, here is the Folio 1 – Thread series.

Time

Have you ever started cleaning out your junk drawer and the next thing you know you are standing on a ladder painting your kitchen?  

That’s what happened here.  I started doing detail photos for the Third Thoughts series and I realized they were the perfect size for Collage Mania.  So I mounted them on 10×8″ Bristol board – done!  

You can see them here at the bottom of the page.

As you can probably tell if you went to look at the Third Thoughts series, it really wasn’t such a linear process.  Instead I started looking at details and then found myself purposely avoiding certain areas. That’s never good.  

So I took a serious look at all the Third Thoughts artworks and started ripping away and modifying parts that were bothering me. Progress! Then I very judiciously added a few things; suddenly I had a whole new set of stories. Perhaps it should now be the Fourth Thoughts series.

In any case, five collages are set aside for Collage Mania and now the new and improved Third Thoughts series with, oh, yes, that’s right, detail shots, are up and available.

Collage Mania will be May 5-7 with a goal of raising of $20,000 in three days.  

Deadline for submission of artwork is April 1, 2009. Guidelines for submissions are here.