Michael Snodgrass

Michael Snodgrass is a Carmel based artist whose work is best described as Abstract Primitive with a nod to the Neo-Expressionists of 1980’s New York. His work is distinguished by the use of strong color, thickly applied paint and crudely rendered figures carved into layers of thick paint and wax. There is always a message included in his work; social or political commentary usually delivered with a heavy dose of humor.
Michael spent his childhood between the Napa Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. After high school, he moved to San Francisco and found work as an artist’s assistant, painting backgrounds for San Francisco street scenes that the artist would finish and sell. After a year, he struck out on his own and was soon selling hundreds of his own cityscapes through wholesale decorators. Though the money was barely enough to live on, this experience helped him hone important skills, like the manipulation of paint, color and composition
Over the next 35 years, he moved away from fine art, finding creative expression as a cabinet maker, builder and furniture designer. It wasn’t until he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the mid 1990’s that he returned to the art world, this time as a sculptor. He created quirky animal sculptures out of found objects, like used wood and scrap metal. While in SantaFe, he was introduced to ethnic and tribal art, including Pre-Columbian and Mexican Folk art, which became strong influences in his work.