Interview: Loren Snyk
Luca Curci talks with Loren Snyk during MIXING IDENTITIES 2023, at THE LINE Contemporary Art Space.

“Loren Snyk has lived in New York, Chicago, and various other cities both within the United States and abroad, but currently resides in Indiana. She has a passion for both fine art photography and abstract expressionism through large oil paintings, inspired by artists such as Cecily Brown, Jackson Pollock, Bridget Riley, Sam Gilliam, and Albert Oehlen, among others. Painting with unique objects, she fully engages in the creation of shapes, color contrasts/ blending, and abstract design through a variety of tools. Her focus is portraying conceptual themes through series of artworks, whether via photographs or paintings. With exhibits around the world, Loren has been published in high-end magazines and has received multiple awards and international recognition for artistic merit.”

Luca Curci – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
Loren Snyk – I have a background in fashion and design, which I believe heavily influenced my love of painting and photography.

LC – Which subject are you working on?
LS – Right now (today) I’m painting a really interesting and odd new concept: “Left Brain, Right Brain”. This is a 76x76cm oil painting. The left portion of the painting is orderly, structured, and carefully measured, while the right side of the painting is creative and spontaneous, with swirls of color throughout. I have high expectations for this painting!

LC – What is the most challenging part about creating your artworks?
LS – My biggest challenge with oil painting is waiting for the paint to dry so I can move to my next layer. I hate that waiting period, but it helps to have several paintings and concepts in process simultaneously. In photography, my biggest challenge is the hours spent reviewing hundreds of photos to find the shot that fits perfectly into the theme. . . and then the next one. There are times when I’ll capture a great photo that’s not right for the theme I’m working on, so I have to pass on it in order to have a really cohesive photo story.

LC – How is your creative process?
LS – I usually begin by sketching my ideas on paper and then mentally translating that to canvas size and proportions. With my painting titled “Prime Red”, for example, I actually spent many days as well as a smaller canvas exploring the options for prime versus non-prime colors in the way I wanted to depict them. Since I wanted to incorporate mathematics into my art design, it was quite a challenging process.

LC – Are your artworks focused on a specific theme?
LS – When I find a theme that works well for me, I create several artworks with that same focus from various innovative angles, but there are times I don’t like a theme quite as well as I’d initially imagined and end up stopping after just one. Other times, the enthusiasm builds as I get into my theme, and I have difficulty even moving to a new theme because I get so excited about it. “Prime Red” was one of the latter. In addition to “Left Brain, Right Brain”, I’m also working on a continuation of the theme I began with “Prime Red” and plan to do a complete body of work with that focus.

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the exhibition’s theme?
LS – For this exhibition, I submitted a video: Journeyed Places. The two artworks noted for the Mixing Identities exhibition, however, are “Unseen” and “Truth and Perception”. They tie into the theme in that both show the filtered perspectives we have, as humans, based on our own perceptions, and the possibilities for expanding our horizons to perceive new realities.

LC – Can you explain something about the artworks you have in our exhibition?
LS – The video I submitted for the exhibition is intended to present photography and art in the context of real life. I feel that “Unseen” and “Truth and Perception” (two of the artworks seen in the video, among others) can be a little melancholy, but sometimes it’s useful to show where we fall short or fail to see others in order to grow.

LC – Would you suggest a collaboration with us? What do you think about our services?
LS – I am just beginning my collaboration with ItsLiquid, but it seems to be a great venture thus far, and I am excited about the possibilities!