Janet Snell

BFA magna cum laude from MICA

My interest has long been in marrying the figurative with the abstract, exemplified in the human figure, its psychological underpinnings, and its moods. First, I get an image in my head and then I develop the space in which the image resides---there is a lot of improvising going on. The space is the abstract, thus the poetry between image and space. I am inspired by music sometimes. I get an image in my head when Im listening to Jimi Hendrix, Tom Waits, U2, etc. More than anything, I want the image to provoke thought in the viewer and myself.

I am a magna cum laude graduate of the Maryland Institute, College of Art (1976) where I studied painting with the late abstract expressionist Edward Dugmore. I have been included in over 50 group and solo shows in New York City, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Cleveland, Akron and other cities. I am the author of "Flytrap" (Cleveland Poetry Center 1990)- a book of drawings and poems about the drawings, as well as an E-chapbook, "Heads" (March Street Press 1998) which was also painting and verse. Collaboration with Cheryl Snell resulted in another book, "Prisoner's Dilemma" which won the Lopside Press competition for 2008. I continue to be published in literary journals, to collaborate with my sister on our sScattered Light Library, and to paint portraits n commission.