John Wayne Mug on the Prairie | Ink on Paper | 30" x 22" | 2012

Nebraska State Fair | Ink on Paper | 22" x 30" | 2012

Artist Statement: I like to call my art practice adventure art. I use the term to describe a performance-based action of adventure, in which I (or someone else) use creativity and imagination to have an exciting and remarkable experience. These adventures are then transformed through various artistic and popular media in order to build a mythology and share the story with others. My drawings and paintings are usually autobiographical reflections on past adventures or sources of inspiration for future ones. Adventure art is an attempt to live life as though it were a movie or at least present the image that it is one.

Steve Snell (b. 1983) grew up in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio where he watched a ton of great television and often rode his bike to Taco Bell. He graduated from Miami University in 2006 with a BFA in Painting and a BS in Art Education. In 2011, Steve received his MFA in Studio Art from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he was a recipient of the Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at the HUB-BUB in Spartanburg, South Carolina and most recently at the Wassaic Project in Wassaic, NY. Steve is currently on the faculty at Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska, where he teaches painting, art history, and adventure-art. His work has been shown in galleries and film festivals throughout the United States.