Spring is one of the pioneers in wood sculpture and installation art. Her scenes range from complex room-size installations to the smaller, more compressed “vignettes”. She was born in England and attended the Central School of Art in London and the Gravesend School of Art in Kent before coming to the United States as a war bride in 1946. In 1951, Spring and her family moved to San Francisco where she found herself in the center of an artistic, cultural and spiritual revolution. She remembers going to the King Ubu Gallery and to many of the performances there and at the later Beat Galleries- some quite daring for that time. She began showing her work in the annual San Francisco Art Festivals, which were attended by musicians and poets as well as artists, as early as 1951. “The critics hated the festivals, but these were explosive times and very exciting!”. Her sculpture “Crucifixion” was rejected at the 1955 Arts Festival held at Fisherman’s Wharf because the Christ figure was naked, however her art construction of a life-sized wooden door festooned with the businessman’s daily necessities won the purchase prize award at the San Francisco Art Festival in the Civic Center, eleven years later.
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