Meet Zach Snyder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zach Snyder. 

Hi Zach, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in Jackson, Michigan, and started creating art in high school. After I started showing my pen and ink drawings to my friends and family, people began to tell me I was “talented.” I loved what people were saying about my work, and it fueled my passion even further. This led to me attending Grand Valley State University which is where I received my bachelor’s degree in Illustration. The thorough curriculum and determined staff pushed and accelerated the development of my work and ideas. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life until I started painting in my Intermediate Painting courses with Jill Eggers and Melanie Daniels. The support of those two, and my Illustration professors, Guin Thompson and Durwin Talon, helped me stay true to my artistic style and interests in expressing myself, which was really beneficial. I was going through some trauma at the time so creating abstract work from a “free state of mind” was helping me escape in a way. I remember the first day of painting. I was resisting the exercise of painting from observation so hard because at the time, I was strictly interested in abstract painting and drawing. I don’t do well when I’m frustrated, and Jill Eggers saw that and encouraged me to paint what I wanted to paint. The freedom to create was exciting and made me really burst with energy. We also had large studio spaces and the means of stretching our own canvases, so from there, I went on to creating a 5’x21′ mural out of three 5’x7′ canvases. My interest in mural painting was something I mentioned frequently, so Jill encouraged me to go for it, and that was my first large-scale painting. This was the most exciting part in my education. Learning photoshop was great, and that was the sole reason I chose to pursue art, but the feeling of painting was something I found to resonate in my soul. The feeling of pushing and pulling paint on a canvas and seeing the surface transform by the movement of my muscles helped me tap into something new and exciting. My senior show was at the Nomad Gallery in downtown Grand Rapids, where I exhibited my 5’x21’ purely abstract mural. There I met a man named Richard App who helped me land, plan, and execute my first mural for Rockford Construction after I graduated. After graduation and the mural for Rockford Construction in 2019, I moved back to my hometown Jackson, Mi. I worked freelance for a few years doing murals, design work, and illustration until Covid took over. I was still making abstract work, even into my two murals for Henry Ford Allegiance Health in Jackson. This project for Henry Ford is where my devotion to abstract work evolved (or died, depending on how you look at it) into more representational painting. It turns out patients in psychosis and under the influence of substances aren’t too fond of abstract, colorful, shape-based work. I should have known better! But that’s how devoted I was to abstract art. I was asked to return and repaint the hallway because patients were having a hard time with the space. I agreed and nervously repainted the hallway with flowers. I had never painted something representational before, only in my first painting class, where we painted from still lives every day. I used pictures on my phone to paint nearly every flower I could find, and it turned out great! That’s when it clicked that I had the tools and knowledge to paint from observation. Big shoutout to GVSU and their art department. After that project, I continued to do murals, but my work started to combine abstraction and representation. I had always resisted representational and academic painting, and I was never terrible at it, but it was hard for me to muster the energy. I’m happy to say I have murals in Grand Rapids, Jackson, and Detroit for reputable organizations. I’ve been blessed to work with Rockford Construction, Henry Ford, JTV, Polly’s Country Market, Jackson High School, Dibble Elementary, True North Collective, Crain Communications, and more. I do murals and create paintings, but it’s not full-time. I thought I’d supplement myself by accepting an adjunct professor position at Jackson College in 2020, and now, in 2022, I just recently accepted a print solutions position at Consumers Energy. The future is uncertain by I don’t plan on giving up my artistic endeavors. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Not quite. I dealt with a lot of trauma after high school. My parents divorced, and I was having a hard time adjusting to being in college. Aside from that, the struggles of being an artist started to show through after graduation. Learning the ropes of freelancing was hard. I’ve learned a lot, especially after the mural I had to redo at Henry Ford Allegiance Health, which was one of the larger bumps in the road. Overcoming my doubts and anxiety was, and still is a challenge for me. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m an artist who specializes in painting, and I’m mostly known for my colorful, abstract compositions. More recently, I’ve tried to combine abstraction and representation in a fun way. I’m most proud of the companies I’ve done murals for. Henry Ford Allegiance Health, Rockford Construction, JTV, and Polly’s Country Market are up there on the list of places I’m most proud of working for. I definitely think the abstract and shape-based part of my work stands out the most. Some say it’s my use of color, but I’m relatively new to color if I’m being honest. 

Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
I really only listen to music regularly, but I watched a lot of self-help YouTube videos and read self-help books in college. Too many to count. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson helped me through those days. Full Catastrophe living by Jon Kabat-Zinn helped me a lot, too. I was also pretty into learning about philosophy and other religious ideas, so I was really absorbing just about everything I could. It was almost too much and led me to what I can only explain as an existential crisis. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artbyzachsnyder.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/_Zachsnyder
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtbyZachSnyder