Sun Valley Home and Design / Fall 2005 / Objects of Affection

 Email  Print  Feed

Objects of Affection

(page 3 of 3)

STEVE SNYDER
Photographer, thinker, optimist

Steve Snyder has decided to bend the rules (again). For the purpose of this exercise, he has chosen to define his home as the planet Earth.

It’s a big place. Lovely. In need of a little work.

And that is, in fact, what his object—built into a corner of his photography studio—is all about.

HIS OBJECT

A bursting, mixed-media assemblage that represents the origin of the universe (what Snyder calls the “Big Beat Heart Start”) and the hearts and lives that have been synchronized ever since. He built it one inspired night from materials he’d collected or created—grape stakes from an old vineyard in California, a time-release photo of the galaxy, igneous lava from Trail Creek . . . Symbolism is layered into the scene with each rock, feather, and stick.

Earth, at center, hangs by a thread.

Nonetheless, Snyder is optimistic: “This is about the rhythms and responsibilities of being human, and the balance it takes to be part of the world—not apart from it. I believe that the more we can give to the health of the big picture, the more it comes back to us in knowledge and understanding. The universe supports us. The planet is waiting to be our Home Sweet Home.”

Part sacred altar, part social commentary. A love song, a lament, and ultimately an affirmation of the “Great Splendor of Mystery” that connects us all: If Earth is not an object of affection, what is?

 

Writer Pamela Mason Davey has red hair and lives in a purple house. Her current object of affection is a sculpture her husband made that looks kind of like a fox holding a squirrel doing a handstand.