Deb Snow

Artist Statement

My body of work combines creative concepts found in painting, collage, printmaking, clay hand-building and sculpture, exploring our relationship with nature.

Developing an abstract sensibility within my paintings has always been a part of my practice, but now I find I look for ways to explore the tension between representation and abstraction, using line and color to represent a visceral reaction to the scene or subject. While living in Chicago, I spent a great deal of time at the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Walks led by ecologists, aquatic curators and plant scientists introduced me to the world beyond the landscape. Nature in its purest form provided the classroom that inspired me to map the biodiversity of the forest, translating flora and fauna into gestural forms of color and texture.

Since adding clay to my medium, I have used many of my paintings to guide surface design for hand-built vessels. In sculptures, I have incorporated nature, mythology, and storytelling as themes to show the interconnectivity of life to spark conversations on preservation and conservation.