When senior Samaira Snow took her first art course in seventh grade, she never envisioned the elective becoming a double major in studio art and art history or her dream of becoming an art educator.
“I’ve never considered myself an artist, and to this day, I still don’t call myself that,” Snow said. Instead, she describes herself as a student, focusing on developing her perspectives and techniques, while navigating her relationship with the artist title.
During her first three years at DePauw, Snow avoided submitting her work to competitions and exhibitions out of her fear of rejection. However, everything changed during her penultimate semester, when her studio art seminar required students to submit their work to DePauw’s Annual Juried Student Exhibition. Three of her four submissions were selected for exhibition. “Unknowing Connections” and “Pleasure and Death” placed first and second in the 2-D and 3-D categories, respectively.
“Unknowing Connections” is an acrylic oil painting inspired by a photograph she took at an aquarium during a family trip. “Something about the way these jellyfish were moving just really inspired me to take this picture,” Snow explained. “The lighting in the aquarium in the tank just lit this so beautifully, and so I was wondering how a photo could translate to a painting.”
She took this opportunity to experiment with techniques she had recently learned and to push her artistic limits, stepping out of her comfort zone. Using oil paint for the first time, Snow also layered linseed oil to recreate the glow of the light reflecting off the jellyfish.
“Pleasure and Death,” created for an assignment, uses a ceramic medium. “The assignment was to create something that you care about that other people might care about, so it had to have a deeper connection to it,” Snow stated. Reflecting on her personal experiences, she decided to focus her creation on the best and worst aspects of each season, describing the process as finding “a way for them [both aspects] to occupy the space without being fully combined.”
Although Snow was pleasantly surprised that “Pleasure and Death” placed second in the 3-D category, the good news didn’t end there. Nearly two weeks before the exhibition opening, Snow was notified that Nancy Nichols-Pethick, associate professor of painting and drawing at Indiana State University and juror of the exhibition, expressed interest in buying her ceramic work.
Snow was overjoyed at her first opportunity to sell her artwork. “I think it validated some part of me. Something that I personally struggle with is knowing where my potential lies,” Snow said. “People understand your art even when it’s not necessarily made for people to understand, whether it be in the same way that you intend for it to be understood or not.”
After consulting with her advisor and negotiating with Nichols-Pethick, Snow’s “Pleasure and Death” is scheduled to be sold after the Annual Juried Student Exhibition concludes.
However, Snow’s dedication to the arts extends beyond her personal works. After graduating from DePauw, she plans to pursue a teaching program before returning to her hometown in Crossville, Illinois, to begin her career in secondary art education. She wants to give back to youth, especially in rural areas where the arts are underrepresented and have fewer opportunities.
“The arts are kind of on the back burner at home,” Snow explained. “When I tell people from home that I’m an art major, they give you that funny look, and it really makes you question how important art is.”
“I’ve never really considered practicing art post-DePauw,” Snow said. “Having these things accepted has made me really question what it is to be an artist, to be called an artist, and to see how art interacts in the art world.”
Snow describes her first exhibition as a reflection of her personal and professional development, in which she deepened her understanding of gallery layouts and “gallery-ready” pieces. Conquering her fear of rejection led to additional applications to external exhibitions.
The next showing of Snow’s work will be the National Society of Arts and Letters (NSAL) Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition, featuring works by artists ages 18 to 29 across Indiana. “Unknowing Connections” will be displayed to the public from March 3 to March 11. At DePauw, Snow’s works will be exhibited alongside other senior studio art majors at the senior exhibition at the Peeler Art Center, opening April 17.
