Soldier/Artist Paints Military Images
The Avenue News - March 17, 2004
By Audrey Carpenter
Gene Snyder has always found a way to make painting a part of his life, even when fate intervened and took him down paths he could not forsee. Painting was his foundation, the gift he held onto through turbulence.
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Snyder, a Middle River resident, started his career at his parents' dining room table tracing Snoopy comics. He moved on to comic book characters such as Spider-man and Batman.
As his interest in art grew throughout his school years, Snyder discovered what he calls "the old masters," Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Soon he was emulating his idols' styles while the sophistication in his art progressed.
During the eighth grade at Stemmers Run Middle School, Snyder's mom passed away from cancer. He stopped going to school, flunked the eighth grade, and was expelled.
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The next year he entered Kenwood High. He flunked the ninth grade as well. His father, an alcoholic, was drinking daily to anesthetize himself from the pain of losing his wife. Snyder was slipping down a self-defeating slope. He stayed at home and played the guitar.
By the time he entered the 10th grade, Snyder was 18-years-old. Three days after Snyder's 18th birthday, Snyder's father died from alcoholism. Without parents, Snyder turned to his only sibling, his sister, who was grappling with an ugly divorce.
Just when Snyder thought there was no place left to turn, his best friend's family welcomed him into their Wilson Point home. They became his family and gave him the encouragement and discipline he so desperately needed to attain his goals.
Snyder got back into school. He had perfect attendance. He was on the honor roll. He played on Kenwood's varsity lacrosse team and was voted most artistic by his graduating classmates.
During his senior art project, he created a life size copy of Adam from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling using colored pencils. Then he won a scholarship to the Maryland Art Institute. Life couldn't be better.
Snyder went off to art school. But he was working full time and going to school simultaneously. He only attended one semester before he ran out of money. He was forced to drop out of his beloved art school. It was another blow. His friend's father encouraged Snyder to join the Army. Still at an impressionable age, Snyder enlisted.
Military Becomes Art
"I chose the infantry as my occupation specialty for the adventure," said Snyder. Snyder was whisked to Ft. Benning, Georgia for basic training and then to Ft. Knox, Kentucky for his first duty assignment as a tank and Humvee driver.
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When he reenlisted, he was trained as a Multimedia Illustrator. He was selected to become a member of the Old Guard in Washington D.C., a unit that specializes in ceremonies for presidents and dignitaries. During this time, he was accosted by Millie, George and Barbara Bush's dog, during an event at the White House. The dog jumped on him and secret security thought he was an intruder. They drew their guns. It wasn't until Mrs. Bush called the dog off that Snyder relaxed.
A few years after his stint in the Old Guard, Snyder was selected to become a combat artist, one of then three positions in the entire Army. He documented Army operations in Desert Storm, Hurricane Andrew, Haiti, Panama, Germany, Bosnia, and Somalia.
"I would take pictures of soldiers and sketch them on a pad in pencil and then paint them," he explained. One of the paintings he created during this time was displayed in the Pentagon and was destroyed in the September 11th attacks.
Snyder began attending classes at Vermont College and studied art and art history. He would finally graduate with his college degree 10 years after dropping out of the art institute. The next year, his daughter Sydney was born.
During his last job in the Army, Snyder served as the instructor of Multimedia Illustration Course for the Defense Information School at Ft. Meade, Maryland. In three years he taught more than 900 students basic graphics concepts and skills. "I taught recruits to draw in 24 days," he said, denying that drawing is an innate talent. "Anybody can draw," he said. But not the way he does.
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Separating From the Army
Snyder decided not to reenlist again. During the time he was struggling to get into the private industry, he was unemployed for over a year. Finally in 2001 he accepted an offer with the Center of Military History in Washington DC
Working with the National Museum of the U.S. Army's Art Collection, Snyder's job is to create a web-based gallery for public research. He also assists with shipping, storing, cataloging, accessioning, framing, and caring for the art collection. He digitally photographs the collection's 15,000-plus pieces. Snyder's own combat scenes are depicted in the collection, and two are featured.
Among the rarities in the collection are four pieces painted by Hitler that were confiscated during WWII. When the collection is finished being cataloged, it will be placed into a new museum at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia. The pieces date back to the Civil War and include those as recent as Desert Storm.
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"A lot of people don't know the Army has an art collection or artists," while standing in his basement studio surrounded by a collapsible French easel, paints, brushes, sketchbooks, and plastic skeletons. A voracious reader of art books, Snyder was pleasantly surprised to find some of his Army paintings published in a book called "Art of War" by retired Col. H. Avery Chenoweth. A copy of the book just happened to be sent to Snyder's office. Chenoweth was a Marine artist during Vietnam.
While traveling on the train to get from Hawthorne to Washington everyday, Snyder sketches. "I love Union Station," he said, and has sketched several passing scenes, even people sleeping on the train. He has broadened his palette to include portraiture and landscapes. He has a few of the Middle River among his collection.
He also displayed his work at Aletha's Gallery in Monkton, but that gallery closed in 2003. This past year he also participated in a show with his four-year-old daughter called "Jumping Generations" at the gallery. Sydney loves to paint, just like her dad, and several of her masterpieces pervade his studio.
In the future, Snyder would like to teach art at the Art Institute. It would complete a circle in his life, the circle that began so long ago at his parents' kitchen table.
Snyder will be having a showing of his work at the Franklin Court Building, 1099 14th Street Northwest in Washington D.C. starting April 3. Visit www.snyderart.com for more information.