Virginia A. Spiegel

Knowing (Boundary Waters 52) Photo by Deidre Adams.
48×36″
White cotton fabric, acrylic paint, felt, cheesecloth, upholstery fabric, black duck cloth, polyester fabric, silk fabric, recycled pieces from artist’s art quilts, oil paintstiks, thread. Hand-painted, stamped, screen printed, burned, hand-dyed, hand and machine stitched.

I am very pleased to have Knowing (Boundary Waters 52) juried in to Beneath the Surface, a special exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA from July 22-25 at the Long Beach Convention Center. The exhibit is presented by the Dinner at Eight Artists and sponsored by Moore’s Sewing Centers and Brother International.

Why did I agree to enter this juried invitational?  Two reasons. I liked the theme as it easily fit my current body of work and I respect the professionalism of the Dinner at Eight Artists, including co-curators Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison.

My artist statement for this artwork:

The first time I went to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, I saw rock, tree, water, sky. But curiosity and necessity have forced me over the past five years to fill my library shelves with books on the botany, biology, ecology, meteorology, geology, geography, ornithology, and mycology of the Boundary Waters.  Lying beneath the surface knowledge of just this small part of the world is detail built upon detail, layers and layers of knowledge — interwoven, timeless, and infinitely complex.

From the beginning I knew I wanted to do something different for this artwork.  Do you remember this in-progress photo from back in November ‘09?

The  artwork was collaged (by stitching, not fusing) in earth/sky/rock/water fabrics (with a great variety of textures such as velvet, duck cloth, upholstery fabric, etc. – all hand-painted, and/or screen printed by me) and then I heavily stitched over the entire artwork with variegated rayon thread. Then I screwed my courage to the sticking point and went at it with oil paintstiks.  The result:

Knowing (Boundary Waters 52) - Detail.  Photo by Deidre Adams.

It’s definitely the kind of artwork (well, that would be ALL my artwork really) that needs to be seen in person to really appreciate the depth and texture.  I am admittedly in love with it because it is a perfect manifestation of my intent, my message, and my theme.

TWO SPECIAL NOTES:
Now that I think about it, this artwork is, in a way, very similar in technique.

If you need more news, subscribe to my free monthly e-newsletter by sending an e-mail with SUB as the subject line to Virginia(at)VirginiaSpiegel.com
The April edition goes out today with news about a new pair of boots with a purpose.

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.

Boundary Waters 48

Boundary Waters 48 has been juried in to ArtQuilt Elements 2010 by jurors Jason Pollen, Robin Schwalb, and Deborah Warner. I’ll be sharing more close-ups here closer to the opening.

There were 257 applications for a total of 606 art quilts entered with 26 states and five countries throughout the world represented.  Fifty artworks were chosen for the exhibit.

ArtQuilt Elements’ opening reception will be Saturday, April 17 from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Morning Song

Morning Song will be available as part of Artful Home ’s Hearts For Anna, an online fundraiser, August 12 – 16.  All funds raised will go to Anna Millea an artist who is fighting breast cancer – again. Anna has been denied insurance, having been deemed uninsurable due to her “pre-existing condition.”

Morning Song is a 7×5″ mixed-media collage.  Materials include hand-painted fabric, screenprinted upholstery fabric, painted and screenprinted paper.  It is actually an irregularly shaped art quilt and is sewn to black matboard for easy framing.

Kudos to CEO Lisa Bayne for creating this event to assist Anna.  If you missed the guidelines to participate as a donor artist, they are here.  You still have time to donate artwork before the August 7 deadline.

I would be happy to share other fiber artwork here before the big event, so do let me know if you are donating fiber artwork.

And mark your calendar for HEARTS FOR ANNA on August 12 – 16, 2009.  Artwork will be sold first-come, first-serve with all items selling for $100 on Day 1, $75 on Days 2-4 and $50 on Day 5. The first 20 donations have been posted in a nifty slideshow here where more information about the auction will also be posted soon.

October:  Field and Forest

The Surface Design Association Conference begins today and continues through May 31, 2009 in Kansas City, MO. The Members’ Show Surface Matters is at the Belger Arts Center. More information here.

Materials include white cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, oil paint sticks, pigment ink, rayon thread, cotton embroidery thread, vintage polyester scarf, Lutradur, and velvet fabric.

I am generally impatient to begin and finish an artwork, but I was working on this piece while I had several other big artworks in progress.  So I added a layer a day and let it evolve organically.  You can read more about the creation of this artwork here.

It’s interesting that I unconsciously return over time to the same themes drawn from my love of the Midwestern landscape.  Here is January Fields from way back in 2003:

And this is Four O’Clock from 2004.

I was studying the work of Helen Frankenthaler at the time and wrote, “I am inspired by Frankenthaler’s work and words to capture that feeling in the sky and fields in Nebraska late in the afternoon in March when the sun is slanting down, the wind is blowing like crazy (as usual!) and we are teetering on the edge between the death of Winter and the birth of Spring.”