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Artist Statement:
At the Maryland Institute
College of Art, I studied
painting with the late Ed
Dugmore and came under the
influence Nolde, Munch, Bacon,
Kollwitz and Ernst. My work at
that time was dark and moody,
with figurative elements
half-buried in the space and
emerging to the surface in
ambiguous ways. Sometimes the
surface was well-worked, the
layering of color inciting
surprise as images rose to the
surface and darted away again.
I think in images. To present
images in a more definite
space, putting the psychology
of emotion under the light, I
improvise in a spontaneous
vein. I’m led around by the
brush in an automatic way that
allows for sensitivity.
Subsequent decisions are then
made from practice and
experience. Executed
pre-meditated meaning makes
lifeless art—no improvisation,
no process.
The meaning in my work is the
poetry between image and
space—implied rather than
overt, human psychology,
painted. The mental landscape
is abstract and can be felt.
The figurative elements are
elements I start with in a
painting. The space is
improvised.
In my drawings, I make figures
in a space suited to them.
Using the figurative head in
an abstract space focuses the
relationship ...
Further Information
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Artist Exhibitions:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
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Collections:
Coming Soon!
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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"I really like this chapbook from MiPO. Both Snells' (author and painter) works soar in this lovely book. It was interesting to watch the movement of fear between the poems: first in the scent of violets, then to "Fight or Flight" and the heart's leaping, and the "Risk" with its phobias. A nervous and wonderful collection of art fused with poetry."
--Andrew Demcak, on Multiverse
Dorothy Shin, Akron Beacon Journal--
"Janet Snell's Mind Screen is an attention-grabbing expressionist work that touches on many of the psychological bells and whistles so doted on by Abstract Expressionists of old. Snell, however, uses figuration, creates a sense of foreground and background, and the mocking manner in which she has rendered the plasma screen above her head tells us that perhaps she's not as into the psychobabble as her predecessors.
Her work is dark,mysterious, seemingly drawn from the subconscious,
sharing affinities with a variety of expressionist and neoexpressionist painters such as Ernst Munch, A.R. Penck and Susan Rothenberg.In her paintings, ghostly figures waft through dark and shadowy environments, mysterious forms seem laden with hidden meaning anddeep forests loom menacingly...Foreboding, regret, entrapment, longing and enigma vie
for prominence while gestural, expressive brushwork gives the forms a supernormal tension and energy...Snell is an important talent who deserves much more exposure."
Bob Grumman, Taproot--"Macabre, comic, mysterious, and subtly erotic, these fascinating drawings constantly flirt with disgust -- a perfect example of graphic black humor. "
"A series of charcoal drawings that go darkly anywhere via an expressionism that reminds me of Egon Schiele and Francis Bacon. Snell provides poems for her illustrations that generally extend rather than just rephrase them--e.g., "Wired up to perpetual self serve,/ the meter running--/ up from the depth arises/ nothing!/ But the phone's always ringing/ off the wall."
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contact artist
