Buddy Snipe

James Buddy Snipe

If you ask the artist whether to call him James or Buddy, you will likely get the reply, “You can call me Mr. Snipe.” Born in rural Alabama in 1943, Mr. Snipe lives on the same property where he grew up. As a child Buddy missed more school days due to illness than he attended and soon gave up on school altogether. One of 12 children, he made the only toys he ever had. While he made his living doing heavy labor and odd jobs, he began to build assemblages of scrap metal, wood, and found objects that eventually filled his yard. Now he makes all kinds of things out of all kinds of materials, but only things that he likes. He paints portraits of the folks that he knows and generally provides a story to go along with the art. Though he lives a good way from the ocean, he is a creator of mermaids unlike any you’ve seen, painted metal cut-outs mounted on twig frames. These are the mermaids that he was warned about as a child to keep him from playing in the river by himself. The river mermaids were likely to swallow any creature that ventured into the water, horses & cows, goats & dogs, even small children. Look into the belly of one of Mr. Snipe's mermaids and you can probably guess its most recent meal. Buddy now laughingly denies that this story ever came from him, but it's still a great one. Maybe he just enjoys keeping us all guessing.