Biography
Bette Anne Wygant was born in 1953 in Redwood City California to a WWII Navy Pilot and Secretary. When her father became a commercial pilot her family moved to Ridgefield Connecticut. Three and a half years later she lost her father to the 1957 PanAm accident in the South Pacific.
She was just 4 years old.
Raised by her Mother and Maternal Grandparents to follow her dreams, she set out to become an artist. She worked to understand the bonds between physical and spiritual worlds on her journey.
In many ways this path through art was set to process the losses she faced. As a teenager loosing her father to disaster and her Grandparents to Cancer was much to contend with. The art was at first a means to express the loss of their physical presence, but she found she was not spiritually alone. Even as a self-taught artist living in sleepy Connecticut. She still had many mentors on the path to spirituality through art living in an age of awakening. Including Harry Bennet a local illustrator of book covers and gothic novels. Bette Anne was also part of a core group of local artists founding the Ridgefield Guild of Arts.
They began the tradition of several local art shows. Many of these shows are still held to this day through out many parts of Fairfield County. Bette Anne began to develop a unique process. By taking the time to experiment with textures, and painting light and shadows her work is unlike any. She charts a course all her own breaking boundaries into the universe. As the rockets
of the 60’s sprang beyond earth so did the context of the artwork in a expanding reality. This began the laying of the foundation for her work as an abstract expressionist. Creativity rooted in spirituality and a quest to express universal truth.
Large obstacles including the murder of her brother in 1974 have met Bette Anne on this path.
In a Danbury News Times article “Sending a Message” she speaks to these moments. She shares how loss galvanized her mission. Realizing each day is a gift renewing a connection to spiritual energy on canvas she is bound to. In an interview with international blogger Marshal Masters she also discusses this continuing journey. Her work is awakening minds and like a grain of salt on the senses in the sleepy New England community of New Milford she did a solo exhibit at the Library Gallery. There her work continued to be a source for praise and commentary.
Pushing the boundaries where artists tend to be more conservative and representational. Bette Anne continues to be in a class completely her own. She has also participated in 15 separate shows in 2015 sharing her vision through out New England.
It was a great year as the Kent Art Association awarded “Ballet of the Blizzard”. Then in October The Art Society of Old Greenwich awarded “And then There Was Light”. Then finally in December Bette Anne was voted Kent Art Association 2016 Exhibition Chair. Her current project is with Lebanese artists organizing an international exhibition. Promoting unity through art.