Amalgam

32’ 8” x 3’ 1” x 1’ 8”

Reclaimed elm, resin and soil mixture, oak dowels

2018

2018 Intern Artist

Artist Statement

My work investigates the sight and perception of landscape. How the view of a landscape changes based off knowledge of what manipulations have occurred. Where I live in Ohio there are empty hills all around the Athens County area from the extensive coal mining; the patterning on the elm tree represents the unseen massive excavation of coal.

Soil as a material has been used as a bandage for the land, to cover and visually disguise landscape alterations. The resin and soil mixture that I applied to the scarf joints is an homage to the way soil is used in massive landscape operations.

This tree represents the dichotomy of the unseen and the seen beauty of nature, from the manipulated to the natural, from the camouflaged to the obvious. A way to observe what has happened to a landscape without the necessary history.

John Patrick Snyder

Born: Newport Beach, CA, USA, 1991

Resides: Flagstaff, AZ, USA

Education

MFA, Ohio University, 2020

BFA, Northern Arizona University, 2014