Julie Speidel "Vasaros Vėjas"

Speidel’s inspiration draws, in part, from her connection as a child with the ancient megaliths she encountered living in Europe. While attending boarding school in Sussex England, she went to early morning services at the Arundel Cathedral. The images of the saints from the stained glass windows have stayed with her in a special way. As she began working on Japanese Kozo paper, which she brought back from Japan in the 80’s, she incorporated sacred imagery that harkened to the windows from her past and drew from her travels throughout Asia and Europe.

From her studio on a picturesque island off Seattle, Speidel works in bronze, oil on paper, stone, glass and wood to create art that graces collections throughout the world. Speidel's art engages an extraordinary array of cultural influences, reaching back through antiquity to the stone and bronze-age peoples of Europe, the early Buddhists of China, the indigenous tribes of her native Pacific Northwest and on into 21st century modernism