Persimmon Tree is very pleased to honor the painter Joan Snyder in this Summer 2008 issue. Throughout her forty-year career she has created a body of work that holds deep emotional intelligence and fine artistic skill. Her paintings have been widely exhibited, and she is known as one of the great Expressionist painters of our day. As a feminist, she remains committed to expressing the life experience of women through her art. We thank her for the gift of her life’s work.
My Life, 1996
oil, straw, velvet, silk and plastic grapes on linen, 48″ x 54″
Rites of Passage, 1996
oil, acrylic, herbs, rice paper, wood on linen, 84″ x 44 1/2″
…and Acquainted With Grief, 1997
oil, acrylic, velvet, linen, silk, papier-mache, and charcoal on canvas
Oratorio, 1997
oil, acrylic, plastic grapes, feathers, fabric, nails, herbs, mud, papier-mache, graphite, paper on canvas, 72″ x 114″
Ghosts, 2000
oil, acrylic, papier-mache, silk, burlap, straw on canvas panels, 72″ x 96″
Cherry Fall, 1995
oil, acrylic, herbs, cloth on linen, 57″ x 66″
Summer 2002, 2002
Oil, acrylic, herbs & fabric on canvas on panel, 60″ x 48″
Cherry Tree, 1993
Oil, acrylic, silk, paper-mache, rice paper, straw on linen, 66″ x 57″
New Moons, 2008
Acrylic, burlap, silk, cheesecloth, wooden balls, and paper-mache on linen, 54″ x 78″
Photo: Jack Abraham
Sweet Golden Clime (For Betsy Driscoll), 2002
oil, acrylic, cheesecloth, dried flower and herbs on canvas
36″ x 72″
Healing, 2004-06
oil, acrylic, paper-mache, seeds on linen, 32″ x 40″
Untitled, (diptych) 2007.
Joan’s work has always delighted and dazzled me. She dares to do what the rest of us only dream of and then fear that we might be seen as messy or incompetent, yet she paints with eloquence, with poetry. Her work never looks dated or stale–it is always fresh and lively. Joan is one of a kind.