My early years were spent in Vermont. I was born in Bellowsfalls and subsequently my family moved to the center of the state. It was here that I spent roaming the green mountains, following deer runs in the summer and fishing in crystal clear trout streams. In the winter months snowshoeing, getting lost, (not lost just confused) and becoming one with the cold.
It was after I left Vermont for Arizona that I began to feel a need for creative expression. I believe this came about as a result of missing the natural world I had left behind. Not to say that the desert does not have its own wonder. Poetry became a way to fulfill this emptiness. I also developed an interest in photography.
After college I spent two years working on the Seneca Indian Reservation in New York State and also the Skokomish Reservation in Washington State. I was very moved by the relationship the Native Americans had with the natural world. The Longhouse religion has its very essence in the natural environment.
In 1979 I moved with my family to San Juan Island in Washington State. After building an art studio we took an unusual tack and built a geodesic house. After coming home from a “successful” art show I would purchase more lumber and a few nails and return to building until the material ran out. This scenario would repeat itself until the house was comfortable enough to move into but definitely not finished.
The next twenty-four years were spent on the art circuit sharing an art booth with my wife. We both had become printmakers specifically printing serigraphs. These were fine art prints designed and printed in limited editions. Some of these prints we designed and printed together others were separate. We did about twenty-two shows a year up and down the west coast including Seattle, San Francisco, Tucson, Phoenix, Boise, Denver, Billings, Park City, and Sun Valley. At the same time we had twenty galleries that we kept in stock all on the west coast.
After a lengthy time of printmaking I have returned to photography. I am attracted to the mystery of life. It was the mystery of printmaking that was so fascinating. Lifting the silk screen to find an image waiting underneath. Clicking the shutter on a camera and the image mysteriously appearing at one time in a dark room tray and now on a computer screen. I like cosmology, reading about the various theories of the universe. I might have liked to pursue physics for the mystery of it all. I would also like to return to poetry. I dream of creating a series of chapbooks speaking to the mystery we find ourselves in.
- Lewis Spaulding
Interview with the Artist at Simply-San-Juan.com
San Juan Island Artsits Studio Tour website