Margaret Spiess

Margaret Spiess became a batik artist by necessity.

As a watercolorist living and teaching in Micronesia years ago, Spiess would discover little white track marks across her paintings the morning after she created them. The tracks were made by cockroaches, which had a taste for the Hooker's Green paint she was using.

It was then that she discovered the medium of batik, a dyeing technique utilizing wax. It employs many of the same painting techniques as watercolor without the problems inherent in living in the tropics.

"In batik, there is an overlay of color from back to front, and you have to think three-dimensionally to build the layers of color."

"One of my batiks is of an old, dead tree, but there is beauty in the texture and color of the dead tree trunk."

Raised in the Bay Area, Spiess gained an appreciation of art early in life. Her father, a physician, had always wanted to be an artist and took her on outings to the San Francisco art museums.

"When I was in high school, Dali and Picasso were still alive, and I could read about them in the newspaper."

A self-proclaimed "color person," she favored the style of the impressionists when she began to do her own work. In addition, her parents strongly influenced her in the Japanese aesthetic with their cultivation of bonsai trees, she said.

After earning a bachelor's degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, followed by a teaching credential, she went off to Micronesia and Guam for eight years to teach art to elementary school students.

Returning to California, Spiess came to the Inland area, where she earned a master's degree in curriculum writing from the University of Redlands.

She recently retired after teaching art for more than 20 years at San Bernardino High School. Her newfound free time and current living situation have led her back to watercolor work.

Her most recent paintings portray daily life in a small mountain community, with scenes drawn from her surroundings.

In addition, the garden continues to be a major inspiration for Spiess' artwork, which now includes photography and calligraphy.

"I began to do photography for my background work and like the concentration on smallness and detail," Spiess said. "A photograph represents a moment in time and stands by itself."

Spiess finds that she uses her mediums in different ways for different purposes. Her latest endeavor involves a new line of greeting cards offering literary quotations, titled "Wisdom Bites."

The calligraphy on the cards is done freehand, with quotes drawn from the works of poets and writers.

"This is just another way for me to promote the value of reading literature,"

P.O. Box 433, Sky Forest, CA, 92385, Gallery Phone: 909-337-1238