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OF THE VENICE GONDOLIER OF VENICE, FLORIDA There are "Phartists" afoot in the neighborhood. Maureen Snyder is one, but is she an artist or a photographer? The term was coined by a local group of photographers and artists to describe their combined talents. Members generally are either one or the other. Member Jack Perkins is primarily a photographer, while John and Suzie Seerey-Lester are predominantly painters, although the Seerey-Lesters do use cameras to record their work and, often, the subjects of their paintings, especially when painting out of doors. Snyder is both photographer and artist. She sells her photographs and she sells her hand-painted silks and embroidery designs. A year or so ago when she began to print her photographs on silk fabric and then to embellish the photos, she became the personification of that coined word -- a "phartist." The Casey Key resident and her husband Chuck, a retired business executive, live in a contemporary house that offers a gallery-like setting for her artwork as well as panoramic views of the Gulf of Mexico. "No one knows the house is here," she said, "and that's what we wanted." |
 Artist Maureen Snyder with her colorized, beaded and embroidery-enhanced photograph of legs seen on the beach. |
 Photo-printed silk fabric has been inserted in an embroidery hoop for embelishment with silk threads and beads. |
From the street, there are pine trees, other native plants and a long driveway from the gate to the house. Along that drive are several scenic vistas fashioned by the artist as gardner. Found objects embellish some of the vignettes, offering a hint at the considerable talents of this lady who finally answered the call of her muse and went to art school as an adult with nearly grown children. Once inside the house, all doubts are gone. An artist lives here. The first floor entry leads into a ground-level gallery with a studio on the gulf side of the house, just beyond the stairs that lead to the main living area above. The gallery walls showcase a variety of photographs, embellished photos and other work by Snyder. Even more awaits upstairs. During the holiday season, Snyder pulls out all the stops. Her holiday table is filled with hand-painted glass plates and goblets. Guests are seated on hand-painted chairs at the inviting table. More hand- |
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painted plates and glasses decorate the open shelves in the adjacent kitchen and garlands of pepper berry branches and other native greenery trimmed from the Snyder property edges windows and sliding door openings throughout the house. She was only beginning her annual decorations when I stopped by to see her work. The Christmas tree would be the last object decorated as that is always a family project. Even this season, when the house was on the annual Grace United Methodist Church holiday home tour, the tree was not decorated for the tour. "It takes me five full days to decorate," she said. "The tree won't be decorated until the three boys get home. It is a tradition that we each put our own ornaments on the tree." She was certain the home tourists would not even notice the missing tree. Snyder seems to have been born with talent. As a child she designed her own clothes, which her mother than transformed into wearable pieces. Two years into college, she married Chuck and became a stay-at-home mother. Yet her artistic muse continued to hover overhead. She painted murals in the children's rooms. When the family lived in Madison, Wis., she designed the house in which they lived. Greg, the oldest son was going to college in Madison at the time. |
 Maureen Snyder sips from one of her hand-painted goblets. Behind her on the shelves are several glass plates painted by the artist. |
 Maureen Snyder's 5-year-old niece was the subject of one of her early embellished photographs. |
"You should take a course," he said. She did more than that, taking a double major in apparel and textile design and art. "I was designing clothing but also painting silk fabrics and dying them too," she said. "Then I took a photography class." Soon, she had her degree, the three sons were going their separate ways, her husband was about to retire and she went in search of the perfect place for retirement. "I walked into this house and it had everything I needed, including an elevator," she said. "We were here four years on St. Patrick's Day." In that four years she developed her skills as a photographer/artist. It was only a matter of time before her muse led her to the Phartist group. |
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Running out of film while walking the beach with her camera, she made the switch to digital, acquiring a Canon Rebel XT and a 100-400 mm lens with a stabilizer. "I took a class from John (Seerey-Lester) and decided I was a photographer and not a painter," she said. "Hanging out with artists, it bothered me that I could make 50 copies (of my original photo). I was used to doing one-of-a-kind works." The idea for embellishing photos grew from that thought. She searched for a fabric on which to print her photos, eventually finding Haboti silk, a fine-weave silk that is paper-backed so that it can be fed through a printer. She bought herself a professional printer with a platen wide enough for large photos and was on her way. |
 While vacationing in Maine last summer, Snyder photographed this lighthouse window. At home in Nokomis, she printed the photo on silk and enhanced the image with embroidery and beads. |
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"It's an Epson 2200, which can handle bigger fabric and has seven different inks," she said. "Having all separate colors plus black helps color-wise." Once the fabric is printed and the backing removed, Snyder uses an embroidery hoop to hold ! her work in place while she embellishes the design with threads and findings such as beads. Working on a photo of her 5-year-old niece jumping up out of the water, she sewed sparkly beads on the picture to replicate water drops. When she travel on planes, she precuts embroidery threads so she doesn't need scissors to take her artwork along on her travels. Custom portraits, including wedding photos, have become one of her specialties. "I am doing a wedding photo of Greg's wife," she said. Snyder also embellishes greeting cards, some made from her photos and some made as collages of shiny fabrics, glitter and other findings. The third Thursday of March, Snyder and her fellow Phartists will display their work at the Collector's Gallery, 211 W. Venice Ave., during the monthly Third Thursday evening walk event on the avenues of downtown Venice. To contact Snyder, call her at 485-2639. |