Daily Inspiration: Meet Alayne Spafford

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alayne Spafford.

Hi Alayne, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been creative my whole life. As a child, I was continually making things, drawing, constructing, sewing, or needlework. I have always known my path so to speak, I always knew I would end up in the arts in some way, though I didn’t imagine myself a full-time painter. When I did my Bachelor of Fine Arts, I was a printmaker with a minor in drawing.

I then went to Montreal and studied textiles and surface design at Concordia University. That indirectly led me to a job in the costume department at Cirque du Soleil where I worked for many years. It was there that I started painting though at first, it was on costumes. We learned to be very adept at painting with dye on fabric. Fine lines, gradations, detailed work, painting with either hand, and all done with those flat black foam brushes you find at the hardware store.

It was then that I thought, why wasn’t I doing this on canvas? So that was the beginning, using those same techniques on canvas, and I never really stopped painting from that point on. I eventually started getting gallery representation and I kept up a diligent studio practice and everything started to fall into place.

I don’t think I have taken a significant break from painting since then other than holidays and vacations.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Things have changed so much in the world of art since I graduated from art school.

We used to take slides of our work with film cameras and create actual portfolios in books, then pound the pavement looking for gallery representation. It was a lot of work, learning the process of how analog cameras work along with a more manual documentation process. Today it is all digital. We have websites and social media and Photoshop.

That again was another unavoidable learning curve. I think as artists we need to always be ready to face and embrace what is new because it happens so fast and it is necessary to stay current. I guess it is the same in any business though in the art world it is a bit different because it relies so heavily on the visual, Instagram was a real game-changer for so many artists.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a collector, I’m interested in what others cast off. Ephemera, bits of unfinished sketches, lists, needlework, ripped and trampled bits of paper from my studio floor with accidental paint drips, are some of the things I use in my work. I want to combine these often unrelated collage elements to form a cohesive story.

I love the idea of all of these different histories and backgrounds coming together in something unexpected. I believe there is always a creative solution for combining disparate bits, sometimes it takes a lot more work to get there, and often the collage is completely obscured but that is all part of the process. My work is done when everything sings together; color, shape, texture, and collage. I often liken my process to a random group of people learning how to get along and eventually becoming family. I begin with a base layer of collage and acrylic and often spray paint.

When that layer is dry, I go back in and try to find the shapes but now use oil. Every shape and color informs the next one and it isn’t something I can predict. I never know how the painting day is going to go because it is all intuitive and happens in the process. I’m not able to make sketches first and work from there, I wish I could, it would make my job a lot easier but so much of the accidental magic would be lost.

We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
It took me longer than most artists to find myself in my work, to find my style and what makes me recognizable.

My mind is always jumping to the next painting, the next experiment, and I need to constantly reel my thoughts in otherwise I would be creating radically different work all the time. That said, I do tend to always have side projects in the works. Right now I am working on textile pieces using discarded needlework as well as some of my own crochet.

I am also experimenting with some irregularly shaped paper works. I would get incredibly bored if I just painted the same thing all the time and I really try to make sure the piece is really very much its own itself.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.alaynespafford.com
• Instagram: @alayne_spafford

Image Credits
Brenda Bastell and Don Gross