Tricia Spafford
Portfolio
Tricia Spafford was born in 1992, and currently lives and works in Katherine, NT. She owns and operates her own framing business and art gallery alongside her father, and is the primary framer, while PJ deals more with the artists and craft-folk who sell items in their shop.
After studying for 10 years at the University of Tasmania, and getting her Honours and a PhD in biotechnology, Tricia took a sharp left turn into framing in order to be closer to her parents after her mum’s breast cancer diagnosis. She and her dad purchased an established framing business in town in 2020, and after a few months of on-the-job training she was turned loose.
She loves the variety that she gets to see and do as part of this line of work. There’s always something new and interesting getting brought in to be framed - from broken plates with sentimental value to two-metre wide indigenous paintings, illustrated maps, woven pandanus mats, pastel artworks and RAAF shell casings and engine parts there’s never a dull moment. It’s a kind of creativity that frees and feeds her soul - there’s structure, skills she knows and can apply to make the pieces people bring in really pop, and all the while she can bathe in new and interesting art. It’s a wonderful feeling to work with a customer to choose a frame they like, work on the layout with them and pick out a matboard and then to see the amazement in their expression when they see the final piece all framed and ready to hang.
Tricia can stretch a canvas in thirty minutes, and loves exploring the things her Wizard 5000 CMC can do.