An Interview with Sylvia Snowden

Abstract

An Interview with Sylvia Snowden Charles Henry Rowell and Sylvia Snowden Although brief, my conversation with Sylvia Snowden gives us as readers and observers of her art a glimpse into her vibrant personality and how that affects her unique approach to art and painting. ROWELL: How did you came to art? You were born in the Deep South—in North Carolina. SNOWDEN: I grew up on the campus of Dillard University in New Orleans and on the campus of Southern University in Baton Rouge, where my mother taught English and where my father worked also. And that’s how I ended up in what you call the Deep South. My parents gave us—my brother and me—something to do when we were very young; they gave us watercolor paints. I enjoyed painting. I enjoyed being alone, and I enjoyed color. I grew up around a lot of color. My mother liked color. And she is as strict as I am. That is, a strict sort of person on her visual likes and dislikes. My father and mother moved to Washington, DC, when I was in the seventh grade. I went to school here and later to college at Howard University. My father told me that I should be very careful as to what I should major in. And he also advised me to do what I’d like to do, but to do what I can do for the rest of my life. I thought about it for a long time, and I said that I would major in art. And my father said, “Oh, I don’t know how you are going to make it in art, but fine, do it.” My father and mother supported me, and they supported my desire to paint. For that, I will always be appreciative. ROWELL: After high school you entered Howard University to study art. Will you talk about some of the highlights of your experiences studying art at Howard University, especially those experiences that you think contributed to your being the artist you are today? SNOWDEN: The second blessing of my life—besides my parents—was to study art at Howard University. And there I studied with professors who were extraordinary. David Driskell was one. The others Loïs Jones, James Porter, James Wells, and others. Those people really had an impact on my life as a painter. They were people who took a deep interest in what their students were doing, and they fostered the learning process, and I am deeply appreciative of their knowledge and their will to share it. And these are people who had their own careers, and they also spent as much time and energy with their students. I will always appreciate them. ROWELL: You said they had a very serious impact on your art. I’m thinking about them right now, as you speak about this, because we just produced an issue devoted to that whole group. None of those artists created abstract art—that is, as far as I have been able to tell. The main of their work was more impressionist rather than abstract. Of course, later in her career Loïs Mailou Jones’s work became more and more abstract. Now in his distinguished career as a practicing artist David Driskell, who had earlier been a student of the Howard University professors you mentioned, created (and still does so) art that reveals his thorough [End Page 85] knowledge of art in Africa, Europe, and the USA. And, of course, that includes abstract art. I view your art as abstract expressionist. SNOWDEN: Well, I wish you wouldn’t have said that. I’m going to tell you why. Because that terminology is dated. It has nothing to do with abstract expressionism. Really, it has very little to do with my work. My work is abstract and it is based on logic and emotion. But that’s really the only connection. I have tried for years to make my own style of painting, to paint what is me, so that’s why I don’t want you to use “abstract expressionism” when you discuss my work. That’s a dated term. That’s...