Artist Profile: Kim Snyder

She's been playing piano and singing in the Rio Grande Valley for years, but there's more to Kim Snyder than the inevitable comparison to Norah Jones and Diana Krall. Maybe you've heard of Snyder. Maybe you saw her playing her piano at a gig at Sahadi's, as she often does. Or you had a romantic dinner on Valentine's Day with your sweetheart and Snyder was serenading the room with appropriate music for the day. But do you really know her? Under the evening gown and love songs lies pain that can only be expressed by singing the blues. Snyder is a big fan of the blues. When she sings her pain and aggressively pounds on the keys, it's not the stereotypical blues one may be used to hearing. Some say she sounds like Tori Amos or Fiona Apple - which is a far cry from Jones or Krall.

While music has always been and will always be a big part of Snyder's life, she also has a love of creating art.

Snyder has been using found objects in her art for a long time now. She calls it assemblage art. She'll take anything from old car parts to keys to assemble into a new piece and add images she's either ripped from a 1968 book or photographs she's snapped herself to create a collage on top of the sculpture.

Collage seems to be a favorite method for the artist who will apply pages from magazines or even old textbooks to a miniature guitar and add beads to the strings. Snyder is also branching out and trying her hand at painting.

When asked if she prefers music to art as a form of expression, Snyder can't decide.

"They're both like my children and I don't know that you could love one child more than the other. So ... they're both my babies," she said.

If you'd like to pick up a copy of the contemporary jazz artist's CD Better or check out her eclectic works of art, you can find her tonight during Art Walk in McAllen at the Renaissance Casa de Palmas hotel in downtown McAllen.

You can buy her first original album at Itunes, Snocap and CD Baby or at her live shows.