Michael C. Spafford

Michael Charles Spafford (November 6, 1935 – January 29, 2022) was an American artist known for his archetypal, figurative oil paintings drawn from Classical mythology. Spafford taught painting at the University of Washington, Seattle until his retirement in 1994.

Early life and education Spafford was born in Palm Springs, California, on November 6, 1935.

While at Pomona in 1956, Spafford met Elizabeth Sandvig, who eventually became his wife. Spafford graduated from Pomona magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Spafford and Sandvig moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Spafford had a full scholarship in art history at Harvard University and Sandvig pursued a teaching certificate in art at Radcliffe College.

Career

Mexico City After graduating from Pomona University and studying art history for a year at Harvard, Spafford moved to Mexico City where his mother-in-law lived so that he and Sandvig could live and focus on their art.

After the birth of their son in 1963, Spafford accepted a teaching position with the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle, Washington. Two years later, Sandvig's mother joined them in 1965.

Spafford followed this with a solo show at the Otto Seligman Gallery in 1965. Spafford was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant in 1966. He also began using diptych and triptych configurations while in Rome. In 1973, Seattle and King County adopted one-percent ordinances. The state of Washington followed in 1974. then uncovered in 1989, before being removed entirely in 1993 and stored.

Spafford's first public art commission was the 1978 King County Arts Commission installation of five images based on the Fall of Icarus (Tumbling Figure – Five Stages) on the external wall of an elevator shaft of Seattle's Kingdome. The design was executed in 1978, then Spafford took a one-year sabbatical to Mexico. Fabrication and installation were completed after Spafford returned from Mexico in 1979.

Later career Returning from Mexico City in 1969, Spafford resumed his faculty position in the University of Washington, Seattle School of Art, teaching drawing and painting until his retirement in 1993. The labors of Hercules would be a motif Spafford worked on for much of his career, creating over 60 works on the theme, including a 1987 set of woodblock prints which was the first art acquired by the Microsoft Art Collection. and another retrospective was held at the Bellevue Art Museum in 1991.

Personal life and death Spafford and his wife, Elizabeth Sandvig, upon receiving his position at the University of Washington in Seattle, moved to the city's Montlake neighborhood.

Michael Spafford died from lung cancer on January 29, 2022, at the age of 86, just days before the opening of a major solo exhibition of his work at the Russo/Lee gallery in Portland, Oregon.

Awards 2017 Lifetime Contribution to the Northwest Art Award (with Elizabeth Sandvig), Museum of Northwest Art (NONA), La Conner, Washington 2006 Mayor's Art Award, Family of Northwest Artists: Spike Mafford, Elizabeth Sandvig, Michael Spafford, Seattle, Washington 2005/2006 Award for Visual Artists, Flintridge Foundation, Pasadena, California 1999 Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award, Corporate Council for the Arts, Seattle, Washington 1996 Neddy Artist Award, The Behnke Foundation, Seattle, Washington 1987 Centrum Print Commission, Fort Worden, Washington 1983 Art Award, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, New York 1979 King County Arts Commission's Honors Award, Seattle, Washington 1967–1969 Prix de Rome Prize Fellowship, American Academy, Rome, Italy 1965–1966 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, New York, New York