The Art of Mickey Spencer: A Retrospective

MICKEY SPENCER RETROSPECTIVE
Alameda, CA, September 21, 2012: Artist and activist Spencer’s paintings, mosaics and sculptures will be featured in a posthumous retrospective exhibit at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts, 1601 Paru St, Alameda, October 5 -31, 2012. The Opening is on October 5th, 7-9 PM. A Special Reception sponsored by the Medical Clown Project will be held on October 28th, 3-6PM. Spencer was a painter, sculptor, writer and interior designer for most of her 84 years, working in clay, oils, watercolors, acrylics and, in the last decades of her life, paper paintings using a hot wax technique she developed after becoming allergic to paint.

Throughout her life, Spencer was active in civil rights, anti-war and feminist organizations and used her creativity and artistic abilities in her work for peace and human rights. In the 1980s, Spencer founded and published, with Polly Taylor, Broomstick, a radical magazine by and for older women. The subject matter of Spencer’s work, whether portraits, objects, landscapes or expressive abstracts, is represented by intricate piecing of colored paper. Spencer’s innovative use of materials resonates with the contemporary ‘mixed media’ art movement. The Retrospective will feature highlights of her career, including “paper painting”, mosaic and sculpture. Spencer’s work sold during the October exhibit will benefit both the Medical Clown Project and the Frank Bette Center for the Arts.

The Medical Clown Project, founded by Jeff Raz, veteran of Cirque du Soleil and the Pickle Family Circus and Sherry Sherman, clinical psychologist, is a nonprofit that provides therapeutic medical clowning to patients, their families and the medical team and staff at Bay Area hospitals and health care facilities. The Frank Bette Center for the Arts is located in a Grand Old Victorian, bequeathed by Mr. Bette - an Artist and Poet, to be "a place for Meetings, Readings, Showings and other Creative Doings". The Center is an all-volunteer run, community based organization with art exhibits, poetry readings, music, art classes and more. Spencer was an avid supporter of the Medical Clown Project and the arts.

For more information on the Medical Clown Project and the Frank Bette Center for the
Arts, please visit the websites: http://www.medicalclownproject.org; http://www.frankbettecenter.org