Merrie Jo Snow

Merrie Jo is a painter and printmaker drawn to the textures of memory, the mood of place, and the quiet language of shape and color. She earned her BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she first encountered printmaking. The medium became a lifelong companion in her creative process. She also studied sculpture and drawing at Portland State University and continued painting and drawing at Marylhurst University.

Much of her work begins with the landscape, but inspiration can come from anywhere—a color glimpsed in passing, a simple geometric form, or the memory of a place traveled. Her journeys across the U.S., Europe, and Australia continue to shape her vision.

Merrie Jo’s process starts with small sketches that grow into monoprints using oil or acrylic on paper or canvas. These prints guide the next step: paintings built with layers of texture and blurred edges, scraped and reworked until they reveal a sense of place beyond the literal. Her goal is to express a sense of place, rather than a realistic painting. She likes to blur the paint with a palette knife and to build and scrape the surface of the painting to create interest and depth.

She works with an Akua Pin Press for small prints and a Takach press for larger pieces. For Merrie Jo, painting and printmaking are inseparable, each one opening new paths to discovery.