Alayne Spafford

BiographyAlayne Spafford is an abstract artist whose work attempts to reconcile her natural tendency to organize and polish, with her strong desire to reject those principals in favour of chaos and disorder. Her paintings begin with a spontaneous and unstructured first layer of collage, drips, and spray paint. In the second layer, Spafford adds more depth and mark-making, then tries to find the shapes within. Her process mirrors her internal struggle to find balance between the opposing but complementary aspects of life.
Spafford received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking and drawing from the University of Saskatchewan. After studying textiles at Concordia University and the Centre des Metiers d’Art en Construction Textile (CMACT) in Montreal, she worked for many years in the costume department of Cirque de Soleil, dying, printing, and hand-painting costumes.
Spafford was awarded a Pouch Cove residency in Newfoundland in 2019, and has exhibited throughout Western Canada and the USA including Moberg Gallery in Des Moines, Iowa, Sopa Fine Arts in Kelowna, Zinc Contemporary Arts in Seattle, and the Front Gallery in Edmonton. Her work is in the collection of the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Alberta, and the PCL Corporation. Spafford resides in Edmonton, and concentrates on painting full-time.