The Art Center Gallery at Clatsop Community College exhibits the work of Michael Spafford and Elizabeth Sandvig Nov. 13 through Dec. 14. Meet the artists at an opening reception at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, at the Art Center Gallery.

Spafford, a prominent Northwest artist known for his powerful and dramatic portrayal of Greek mythology, will exhibit oil paintings and print work.

A professor emeritus at the University of Washington School of Art, Spafford became interested in ancient Greek and Roman mythology after a two-year fellowship to the American Academy in Rome in the 1960s. His paintings, woodcuts and prints reflect his own interpretations of the known stories of struggle between gods, man, monsters and animals.

Spafford’s work is about storytelling. Through the use of negative space and saturated color, Spafford reminds the viewer that the work is not only about the story, but how the story is told. His work also illustrates the importance of art in history. Utilizing deliberate line and shape, Spafford creates epic and brutal conflicts that maintain an essence of sensuality and passion. Spafford states, “Dualism, metamorphosis, the confrontation of opposites, the struggle for achievement, the ultimate failure of an heroic effort – each of these gestures is expressed in the myths I use. My effort is to translate these gestures into abstract visual terms and pass their energy on to the viewer.”

Sandvig has been working as a professional artist since 1960, when she had her first one-person exhibition in Mexico City. Later, after residing in Rome, she worked primarily as a sculptor. It was in the early 1980s that she focused on painting and printmaking as a chosen medium.

Sandvig, whose work has been described with such words as “perseverance, passion, dedication and generosity,” focuses on animal imagery in her paintings and print work. Her work, vibrant in color, explores the relationship between content and concept. “I am stimulated by the struggle to make images and idea come together by seeking the right combination of my hand and my mind in arriving at an energetic resolution, which is primarily visual, and secondarily pictorial,” she states.