Our Artists

About Pat

Pat Snyder was an acclaimed artist, teacher, and printmaker. His passion for art began early. As the middle child in a family of nine, he grew up in a home where creativity was encouraged. His mother nurtured the children's artistic interests, while his father, a professional sign maker, regularly taught them drawing techniques around the family's large kitchen table.

"I was attracted to art at the age of 5 or 6," Snyder recalls. "I was fascinated that I could pick up a pencil or crayon and make marks on paper, watching scribbles become recognizable images or expressions of feelings. It was exhilarating."

As a child, he repeatedly checked out Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs sketchbook from the library, carefully copying the drawings to understand how they were created. He also entertained friends by inventing and drawing imaginative monsters covered in fur and sharp teeth.

After graduating from high school, Pat enlisted in the U.S. Army. Following his three years of military service, he enrolled at Northern Illinois University as a mathematics major, but his true calling remained art.

When his parents relocated to Sarasota, Florida, Snyder learned about the Sarasota Ringling School of Art and enrolled there. Immersed in intensive, full-day classes in design, lettering, drawing, figure drawing, and painting, he built the strong artistic foundation that would shape the rest of his career.

He later returned to Northern Illinois University, earning a bachelor's degree in education with an emphasis in art, followed by a Master of Arts degree with a minor in printmaking.

Snyder began his teaching career in 1967 at Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, where he would spend the next 31 years inspiring generations of students.

"My primary goal was exposing students to both contemporary and historical art movements," he explains. "I also wanted them to experience as many artistic mediums and tools as possible." To accomplish that, Pat continually taught himself new disciplines—including ceramics, sculpture, jewelry making, calligraphy, and collage—before introducing them in the classroom.

After retiring from teaching in 1998, Snyder devoted himself full-time to creating art. His work has since been exhibited in museums and prestigious juried exhibitions across the United States.

Among his many honors are two Purchase Awards received in the 1999 and 2002 Expressions West exhibitions presented by Coos Art Museum. Those award-winning paintings now hang in Southwestern Oregon Community College. (See photo of The Fire Escape.)

Pat's work is also represented in permanent collections at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and the Coos Art Museum, reflecting a lifetime dedicated to artistic excellence, education, and creative exploration.