In retrospect Sarah Snavely
This show is a retrospective of the artwork I have painted over the course of my teaching career and now, in my retirement.
Painting has always been a large part of my life, professionally and personally. After earning a BS and a BA in art from Dickinson State University in 1972, l went on to earn a Masters Degree in Art Education from Northern State University in 1993.
Over the course of my 33-year teaching career, I taught in K-12 traditional classrooms of the Bowman, ND, and Rhame, ND, schools and later, to students in Scranton, Hettinger and Mott through the Yellowstone Trail Consortium interactive television system. In summers, I taught painting to students age 10-83, accumulating 45 years in classroom art education as well as other subjects.
In 2000, I became an adjunct instructor of art at Dickinson State University (DSU) and in 2006, a full-time employee of that art department, teaching Introduction to Visual Arts, Folk Art and the History of Art.
Attracted to the natural light and drawn to Impressionism, I continue to be influenced by the gold of the Byzantine painters and to appreciate the work of the German Romantics.
My latest works reflect my communion with nature, often via bicycle, such as my Spearfish Canyon series, the Fort Abraham Lincoln series and the Columbia River series (Oregon). "We can't paint it if we can't feel it."
Mother Earth is vast and we, as humans, are minuscule. Therefore, my pieces ask the question:
How do I give Mother Nature the respect and reverence she deserves?
Much of my late work deals with how to solve this challenge.
Sarah Regan Snavely was born and raised in the extreme corner of southwestern North Dakota where she now lives with her Greyhound dogs. She received her BFA from Minnesota State University - Moorhead. She has been awarded a North Dakota Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship and has been appointed by the Governor of North Dakota to the North Dakota Council on the Arts Board of Directors. Sarah has also received grants from the Bush Foundation and the Greyhound Club of America. Sarah has exhibited across the United States and has work in all fifty states and seventeen countries.
Sarah has lived with Greyhounds, Sterling, Striker, Apollo, Kelly, Esther, Winchester, Sage, Annie & Nero, since adopting her first from Greyhound Pets of America - Minnesota in 1995. She can be found on social media on her Facebook Studio Page, her Twitter account, as well as her Instagram account.
