Soul Box
A general theme that runs through much of my work is what I call the Soul Box. Early on I became fascinated with Fetish Dolls and Idols of African and Oceanic cultures. On one such figurine had a small box, mounted on the chest, with a glass plate protecting whatever lay within it. The rest of the surface area of the doll was embedded with nails and metal shards. I found this to be greatly symbolic of man's ability to take on great sufferings and pain all the while protecting and keeping in tact his inner self.
Through my artwork I began to explore different variations on how this idea might play out. I sought ways to emphasis the outside and the inside concepts, while expressing the emotional, mental and physical relationships that each places on the other. In its simplest form the Cup Series can be seen illustrating this devise. The word imprinted on the outside of the cup conveying one kind of emotional state, while the word imprinted on the inside reveals itself slowly and most often contradictorily. It leaves the viewer to make the two words work together in some sort of harmony that they can live with. The Cube Series can be seen as a much larger physical representation of the Soul Box with it's steel pipes representing the box on the scale of man. Then it is placed into surroundings where people can interact with it from the outside, while it in turn has a relative affect on them and the space. The Grid Series too is an example, by chopping up a scene into individual little squares in which to examine them more closely - a sort of more scientific approach to examining the soul of an environment.
- Mark Snyder, 2009