Pat Snyder: A Retrospective
Pat Snyder
Pat Snyder, artist, teacher, and printmaker, was the middle sibling of nine children. His mother strongly supported art; his father made his living as a sign maker. Drawing materials were always within reach, and many times his father sat at their large kitchen table showing drawing techniques.
He was fascinated that he could pick up a pencil or crayon, make marks on paper, and see scribbling become recognizable or expression feelings. When young he checked out Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” book – copying characters to learn how to draw them. The Cold War emphasised math and science in schools during his high school years, so he skipped art classes. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Army for three years, then entered Northern Illinois University as a math major, but became disillusioned and bored.
His mom told him about the Sarasota, Florida Ringling School of Art, where he enrolled and established a strong foundation through hard work and all-day art classes in design, lettering, drawing, figure drawing, and painting, which strengthened his art skills.
He then returned to NIU in the early 1960s, completing his Bachelor’s in Education with an art emphasis and later, a Master of Arts Degree with an emphasis in Printmaking. He was influenced by the young instructors and especially the discipline and imagination of etching printmaker David Dreisbach, who studied at the University of Iowa with internationally renowned artist Mauricio Lasansky. He attended NIU-sponsored printmaking workshops, headed by other internationally known printmakers Carol Summers, Garo Antreasian, and Gabor Peterdi.
At NIU, he met his wife, Gail. They married, and she taught grade school while he finished his degrees. In 1966, they took a camping trip West to Coos Bay, where he had lived in his middle school years. They both applied for teaching positions, and a year later he was offered an art position at Marshfield High School. He introduced students to as many art mediums and tools as possible, going beyond only drawing and painting. He taught himself in the areas of ceramics, sculpture, jewelry making, calligraphy, and collage before introducing the mediums to students.
With the arrival of computers and desktop publishing, he adapted, transitioning students to computer graphics for art and year book publishing. He transformed several of his hand lettering skills into computer fonts that caught the attention of Apple Computers, which bought the rights to several of his fonts for the 1991 release of their then new OSX operating system – the most popular being the Marker Felt font series which resemble the use of Sharpie felt marker pens.
Retiring in 1998 he devoted more time to his own art and various community art groups. His work has been exhibited through the years from coast to coast in museums and in many shows across the country. In 1999 and 2002, he received Purchase Awards in two separate Expressions West exhibitions at the Coos Art Museum. Both paintings can be seen at Southwestern Oregon Community College. Many of his paintings are in permanent collections: one in the Oklahoma City Art Museum, Okla., and another at the CAM. Two of his local seascapes from CAM’s rental gallery have been displayed at Bay Area Hospital.
When moving to Coos Bay in 1967, he and Gail joined the Coos Art Museum, which was then new in the old Carnegie Library. He held CAM’s first high school student art show there and many shows since. As a longtime CAM member, Pat served in many volunteer capacities: board member, acquisition and permanent collection committees, desk greeter and guide, and instructor for print and painting classes.
