Ronald (Gyo-Zo) Spickett (born 1926) has lived and worked in Calgary since the 1940s, when he came here from his native city, Regina, to attend the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (forerunner of today’s Alberta College of Art and Design, or ACAD). He enjoyed a distinguished career of teaching both at the Alberta College of Art and Design as well as the University of Calgary’s Department of Art.

In 1955, Spickett won a scholarship to attend an important school in Mexico. There he became familiar with the Mexican mural tradition. Spickett later traveled to Japan, and was inspired by the artistic traditions of that country.

He also became interested in Zen Buddhism, and became an ordained Buddhist priest in 1984, when he adopted the Buddhist name Gyo-Zo, which means, “Everything he does is very spiritual.” His name is pronounced with a hard G, and both O’s are long—as in “go.”