Contributor

Betty Spackman

Betty Spackman is a Canadian multi media installation artistand painter with a background in theatre, animation, performance art and video art. She has exhibited internationally and taught studio art at various Universities and community arts programs for over 20 years. She won a National Film Award in 1987 for a 5 min. animation” A Bird in the Hand”.

Spackman collaborated for many years with Austrian Artist Anja Westerfroelke. Their early video work was shown at ARS Electronica in Austria and Long Beach California with well-known artists such as Bill Viola and Gary Hill.

She has written, illustrated and published art related books, and has collaborated, taught and spoken at conferences and galleries in Canada, Europe, the US, and Mexico.A Profound Weakness: Christians and Kitsch,Spackman’s 500p illustrated book published in 2005 by Piquant Editions, UK is a personal journal and commentary about images of faith in popular culture.

Spackman is also a mentor and community arts educator, and has developed The Open Studio Program, an alternative community education model for emerging artists used in Yellowknife, NWT, Medicine Hat, AB, and Langley, BC.She is co-founder of The Fort Gallery in Fort Langley, British Columbia, Canada, a cooperative gallery serving emerging artists in that community for the last twelve years.

Her work has focused on cultural objects and the stories connected to them with a more recent focus on issues of animal/human relations.“FOUND WANTING, a Multimedia Installation Regarding Grief and Gratitude” 2010-2014 was a 3000 sq. ft. installation project built around a large collection of animal bones and addressed issues of the killing and commodification of animals. She is currently working on a painting installation“A CREATURE CHRONICLE”,about ethical concerns in faith and science regarding transgenics and the development of post humanism.

Q&A with Betty Spackman, “Artist and kitsch expert”

I am an artist. I make things. I paint pictures. I make things and paint pictures and tell stories.

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More From This Contributor

Skinning the emperor’s new clothes

Today in Comment: a second week of review, as Betty Spackman critiques Kelton Cobb’s The Blackwell Guide to Theology and Popular Culture. What are the religious impulses below the dressy surfaces of popular culture?