M.L. Snowden is the sole living inheritor of select 19th century marble carving, finishing, casting and bronze patination techniques from the Paris studios of Auguste Rodin and Antonin Mercié. M.L. Snowden sculpted alongside her father for seventeen years as an apprentice and as a professional in Snowden Studios. In 1990, M.L. Snowden inherited a collection of 38 of the original sculpting tools from the Rodin Studios. Rodin’s tools were bequeathed to M.L. Snowden’s father by the Swiss sculptor, Robert Georges Eberhard, who was Chairman of the Yale School of Sculpture for almost fifty years and was a professional in Rodin’s studios in the latter part of the 19th century. Eberhard was a mentor to the sculptor’s father, George H. Snowden, N.A. (1901-1990); Who Was Who In American Art. G.H. Snowden was a sculpture educator at Yale University for many years and his extensive list of commissioned sculptures now constitute national historic landmarks. The Smithsonian Institution held a retrospective which featured Snowden sculpture, SCULPTURE IN THE FEDERAL TRIANGLE.
Over the last two decades, M.L. Snowden has pursued sculpture as an expression of titanic geological phenomena and the impact of mankind on his environment. In 1998 M.L. Snowden was awarded the massive multi-million dollar Carano Gordon Atlanta Commission to create the sculptor’s vision for the largest cohesive body of bronze extant in the latter half of the 20th century. In this collection, notable explorations into extrusion, inclusion, advanced gravity pour techniques, innovative chasing protocols, recombinant jeweler and bronze techniques are forwarded. Snowden’s restructuring of proprietary historic wax and patina formulations as well as other ground-breaking techniques for the art and science of bronze metallurgy have been advanced. In Snowden’s GEOLOGICAL COREIUM, the fine art of bronze is shaped, redefined and celebrated. An ongoing 16 City national tour of M.L. SNOWDEN: THE LEGACY OF RODIN has been made possible by Advanstar International Art Group, Masterpiece Publishing Inc. and other sponsors.
In the year 2000, Snowden was commissioned to create the GREAT ANGELS OF THE MAIN ALTAR for the new $200 million Los Angeles Cathedral from a field of 8,000 international portfolios. In addition, Snowden is the sculptor of the LOS ANGELES ANGEL FRIEZE for the Cathedral’s Visitor’s Center, the first representation of a group of Angels for a permanent public setting in the history of the City of Los Angeles. Most recently, M.L. Snowden was awarded the inaugural Presidential Order of Merit “In Recognition of Significant Contributions to the Betterment of Humanity Through Art,” presented by the Fine Art Foundation with the sculptor’s work recently added to the Presidential art collection at the White House. The sculptor maintains studios in southern California, Paris and Austria.
Harvard University’s Michael Miller, National Marketing Director Emeritus of Butterfields / Ebay writes, “These are historic works that uncannily unite expressionism’s great inner explosions and outward cataclysms with Europe’s golden age. M.L. Snowden’s art is a glorious fusion - the summary of our age superceded by the vitality of a moment.”