By Rebecca Pikus
Snake Jagger is a painter who truly loves capturing his subjects & putting a tongue-in-cheek twist on it! Whether Desert Landscapes, Catalina Island, or animal paintings,something is always aschew, but you have to look for it! Not only is his art delightful, but so is his outgoing personality! Snake is a legend in the Desert — AND — everyone Loves him!
Snake refers to his artistic style as Whimsical Surrealism. He is an artist who, while dedicated to the subtle exposition of his personal philosophy, doesn’t take himself too seriously and is comfortable working with his tongue planted firmly in cheek. Jagger’s work is clearly surrealist in demeanor, but there is no hint of the Daliesque allegory here. Rather, Jagger’s work seems to draw a significant part of its compositional inspiration from Rene Magritte. Jagger, like Magritte, is able to juxtapose the most mundane of objects in a manner that convinces us to accept the entire image, regardless of its disparities, as a wholly realistic depiction. And so it is with Jagger’s work; once the mind’s eye has recorded the presence and positioning of these incongruous objects, it then becomes almost impossible to imagine the painting existing without them.
Snake has been drawing and painting since he was six years of age. Without any formal training, he is the quintessential self-taught artist. Although he dabbled in art throughout during his early years. he did not get serious about it until he was about 25 yrs old. He has since developed his own unique style of portraying the desert landscape that he had come to love. His early influences include such masters as Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Hart Benton, and modern influences such as Peter Max, Noble Richardson, MC Echer, and his personal favorite, Rene Magritte.
These days Snake spends a lot of time doing what he loves to do, creating manicured Landscapes, incorporating a touch of whimsy and surrealism. Along with the desert, he enjoys painting Space scapes and scenes with a Mediterranean flavor, like regions such as the Greek Islands or Vineyards of Tuscany — & Catalina Islands! He also does pet portraits, murals, and commissioned pieces. And true to his love of personas, Snake paints himself in his paintings – self-portraits, such as a Pirate!
Snake Jagger’s work can be viewed at his website: www.snakejagger.com. If you are interested in purchasing a painting or ordering a print of his work, you can contact Snake at snakejagger@gmail.com, or call his studio at (760 641-6342.
Upcoming shows: The Glass Outhouse in 29 Palms, June 7-29, 2014
The Catalina [Island] Festival of Art, September 19 – 21, 2014
The Hwy. 62 [High Desert] Art Tours, last weekend in October and first weekend in November
