Q: Tell us about a significant piece in your collection.
A: Betz: When I first came to Seattle one of my first friend’s was the artist Joe Max Emminger and he would come over and talk about art. In fact, Jo was just beginning to paint and I remember going to his house and looking at some of his early paintings and I remember looking at one painting in particular that now hangs in our hallway and thinking “Wow, Jo has made a very big leap in his work and it’s beautiful”.
Q: What philosophy would you pass on to a new collector?
A: Betz: Just go with your gut. Buy art that makes your soul sing.
Q: What is on your wishlist to collect next?
A: Betz: Actually we recently bought a piece by Terry Terrell which had been on both Hugh and I’s Wishlist for quite a while. So right now I don’t have any one thing in mind, but I know I’ll see a show, and something will just hit me.
Q: How did you and Hugh first meet?
A: Betz: It’s a funny story because Hugh and I first met in the personals. After I got divorced I had a hard time meeting people, so I put a personal in the Seattle weekly and I ran it for about year.
Hugh: Her personal said she was an artist and that was something I was specifically looking for. I wanted a relationship in which discussing art and aesthetic issues was not forbidden. We don’t argue very much, but we do argue about art. And it’s important that those issues matter to both of us, even if we disagree.
Betz: We argue really heatedly about art.
Hugh: There have been artists that I was interested in and sometimes for years in advance of actually buying a piece, I would be trying to decide between a couple of pieces that were available and having Betz’s different perspective always enabled me to make the best choice.