Resume:

Commissions:
2007 Hyatt Hotel, San Antonio, TX
2007 Tribal Casino, MI
2007 St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor, MI
2006 Hyatt Hotel, Jacksonville, Florida
2004 Marriott Hotel, Camelback Inn, Scottsdate, AZ
1999 Wild Buffalo Blues Club, Bellingham, Washington
1998 Bellagio Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada

Private commissions to condominiums and homes

Gallery Representation:
Blue Horse Gallery, Bellingham, Washington
Mark Bergsma Gallery, Bellingham, Washington

Publications:
American Craft Magazine, Feb/Mar 2002, Aug/Sept 2000, Gallery
Fiberart Magazine, Sept/Oct 1999, Swatches
The Guild Sourcebook #12, #14, #19 and #22

Education:
1981 Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, B.S. in Ecosystems Analysis
1988 Saterglantan Hjemsloydens Gard, Insjon, Sweden, Hand Weaving
1988 Apprenticeship with Vivika Nygren, fiber artist, Orebro, Sweden

Exhibitions:
2006-2007 Luminous Nature, solo exhibition, Mindport Gallery, Bellingham, WA

2006 Looking Forward, Glancing Back, Northwest Designer Craftsmen at 50, Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA

2005 Looking Forward, Glancing Back, Northwest Designer Craftsmen at 50,Contemporary Crafts Gallery, Portland, Oregon

2006 Looking Forward, Glancing Back, Northwest Designer Craftsmen at 50, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA

2002 Teck Gallery, two person show with Jo Morgan, Vancouver, Canada

2001 Central Musuem of Textiles, Lodz, Poland. The International Fiber Art Symposium Lodz 2001

2001 Luther College, solo exhibition, Decorah, Iowa

2001 Craft Biennial: A Review of NW Arts & Craft, group show, Oregon College of Arts & Crafts, Portland, Oregon

2000 Skagit Valley College, solo exhibition, Mt Vernon, WA

2000 Miniartextil Como, miniature exhibition in Como, Italy

2000 Allied Arts Gallery, two person show with Jo Morgan, Bellingham, Washington

1999 Little Gallery, solo exhibition, Bellingham, Washington

1999 Northwest International Art Competition, Bellingham, Washington, curator: Lloyd F. Herman

1999 Edison Eye Gallery, group show, Edison, Washington, curator: Pamela Richardson
1997 "Upon Reflection 1997" Washington State Trade and Convention Center,
Seattle, Washington, curators: Lloyd F Herman & Vicki Halper

"Fiber Celebrated '97" Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, curators: Tom Lundberg, L. Verschoor, Lillian Whipple

1996 American Tapestry Biennial I, a one-year traveling exhibition, curator: Carol K. Russell

1993 "Fiber Celebrated '93",Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, Awarded the Katherine Ramus Award

Denise M Snyder


Artist Statement


Scenes in nature inspire me, scenes that are so much of a part of our inner makeup that we feel a sense of belonging in their presence. These are any number of things and places; a prairie meadow, wheat blowing in a field, the winter skyline through bare tree branches. This is where we come from and what we should stay in tune with. I work to create art whose color, texture and depth makes one feel the spirit of the world out there, the world beyond walls, streets, and us.

I am educated in the environmental sciences at Western Washington University with special emphasis on intertidal marine algae and spend a good deal of time in the mountains of Washington State. I earned a BS in environmental sciences. To complete this degree I studied and identified the marine algae along the arctic coastline of Mehamn, Norway. It is in Norway that I began to understand the richness of weaving, fine yarns, and tapestry. This understanding is what brought me back to Scandinavia for further study.

In Sweden at Saterglantan Hjemsloydens Gard I studied weaving and apprenticed with the Swedish fiber artist Vivika Nygren. Vivika introduced me to many of the basic elements of what makes fiber art work. I also studied with tapestry artists Marcel Marqois and Marta Roygoska after returning to the United States. Though I will always weave tapestry, it has mostly given way to the three dimensional sculptural works that I have been creating for the past ten years. These pieces reflect for me the immediacy and absolute presence of the natural world.

At home in my studio I work with a variety of materials. It may be delicate sheets of paper cut and formed to resemble fields of grass. Sometimes it is tree limbs, whole sections of limbs or bundles of fine branches. I clean them, perhaps peel their bark away, and usually polish or oil them. Whatever it takes to bring out their real luster. Then I think, what form should this take to make a statement about its own beauty. A branch suspended from rich fat rope of bright colored yarns may result or possibly tightly wrapped bundles of branches lashed onto a wooden frame. The vivid beauty of the medium is the outcome that I seek.