"Right out of high school, I went to San Francisco, walked into an art gallery and talked my way into a job as an assistant to the Artist Irwin Friedman. I had no experience and no background, but Friedman saw something in me. I learned very quickly and was soon painting backgrounds for his paintings. As soon as I learned to paint the foregrounds, I struck out on my own and was soon mass producing San Francisco street scenes. I sold several hundred paintings while still a teenager, but for far too little money. I left the art world for over thirty years to do life and raise a family. A move to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the nineties, prompted my return to art, first as a sculptor then as a painter. It was in Santa Fe that I developed my deep love of tribal and primitive art. When I returned to painting, I determined to create a body of work that reflected my interest in primitive art and abstract expressionism. I wasn’t moved by the artwork I saw around me, the pretty landscapes and still lifes. I sought to create a body of work that had meaning to me and allowed me to work in a very physical and emotional way. I began by creating a series I called “Retablos for the Inglorious.” Retablos are small devotional paintings done in the folk art style, usually glorifying a single saint or Virgin and using a limited amount of text to identify the subject.Mine were retablos glorifying such scoundrels as chicken thieves, cattle rustlers, horse thieves and art critics. I was taking a gentle poke at organized religion and modern day idolatry through the use of humor and my primitive figures. I have stayed pretty true to my original vision and have always maintained a humorous subtext no matter how my style evolved or what the subject matter was." — Michael SnodgrassSanta Fe, NM