Author | Lightnews

Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Aug 30

Come see what I’ve been working on alongside five other artists in our community. House on Fire is open now at The Common Well in Garden City. My piece will be changing over the course of the show— come see me work today and tomorrow at noon.

A length of white paper on a concrete floor. The end of the paper is cut into fringe. On the left side, the paper reads repetitive text: “give me give me give me”

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jul 29

I’m honored to be a part of the House on Fire Artist Residency at The Common Well this summer. I’m working alongside five other artist-activists to find meaningful ways to connect activism to art practice. One guest speaker’s talk was titled: “how to burn brighter than the dumpster fire” 🔥

Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jul 29

I’m sure for a lot of my fellow artists, we’re wondering what our role is right now. Everything is changing, faster than we can keep up with. But art — song, especially — can bring people together in a powerful way. Song can turn poetry and narrative into something memorable and communal.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jul 29

He hesitated before agreeing to that performance, unsure of whether it was his place. The terrorist had named the song as everything he hated.

I keep thinking of the line “you can’t kill all the unbelievers / there’s no shortcut to freedom”.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jul 29

I’m thinking about the importance of song, particularly comfort songs. Lillebjørn Nilsen led 40,000 people in singing «Barna av Regnbuen», his translation of Pete Seeger’s “My Rainbow Race” a year after the terrorist attack of July 22, 2011.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jul 29

Every translation is a transformation. This scroll has the lyrics to Lillebjørn Nilsen’s «danse, ikke gråte nå» in Spanish, English, and the original Norwegian. I remember listening to this song on cassette as a kid. It was one of the first songs I could understand in full as I learned the language.

A red, white, blue, and lavender hand painted scroll unfurls to reveal text in Spanish, English, and Norwegian

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jul 15

Just finished deinstalling at the Boise Art Museum. A bittersweet end of the most significant show of my career. Here’s a vid that shows the internal armature.

I already have more paper pillars in the works, repurposing some of the PVC armatures for the next show.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jul 14

Ancient history need not be a mystery.

A scroll of white paper with red writing stands on end on a desk with both sides curled and a big swoop unfurled between them. Behind is a loom and more scrolls.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jul 5

I don’t like the process because it is hard to remember and time consuming. It requires more patience and attention than the act of weaving. I know I’ll get better the more I do it, but I don’t want to do it frequently. I need to struggle through the difficulty and commit to doing it more often.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jul 5

Warping is the hardest part because I do it only about once or twice a year. Weaving is tricky when you have so many interests!

Dark and light blue threads are chained and wrapped around the front beam of a floor loom. The ends have been threaded through the comb-like part of the loom, called the reed.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 23

Getting some help from one of my fellow artists-in-residence, Janell Strouse, today, to get my Boise Art Museum show professionally photographed. This is my unprofessional iPhone selfie as she’s hard at work doing her thing shooting the work 📸

The show is up through July 13th.
#contemporaryart

A white woman with short blonde hair, glasses, and red lipstick smiles in front of painted paper scroll towers

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 12

Cosecha. Harvest. Ekphrastic alt text on carrots I forgot to thin.

In Norwegian,
carrots are gulerøtter.
Gule + røtter.
Yellow roots.
Vegetables? Grønnsaker.
Grønn + saker.
Green things.

#vegetablegarden #poemdiary #norsk #multilingual #freeassociation

Light shines through a window. It is morning. Baby carrots that didn’t grow very big because I forgot to thin them are backlit. They look like drips of ink spilling down into the roots. I notice the roots have little hairs coming off of them and this strikes me as very cute. The carrots’ little feet dip their toes in water. A cup is backlit and turned on its side. It reminds me of a moon.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

Thank you for all that you do. Your writing over the years has been a beacon of hope.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

What’s the beforelight book in this picture? The cover looks like a cyanotype by Anna Atkins

Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

Breaking language is what poets do. As does AI. Signs of life? Signs of consciousness? Is consciousness just stupidity? Is consciousness being conscious of one’s own stupidity? Stupid thoughts. Thanks for reading.

Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

Reminds me of Magritte and de Chirico. Also Morandi in a way. And Edward Hopper.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

Moral compass
Oral comfort
Comfort food
Moral courage
choral cordage
choir twined together
wire binds up ties in pyres
fire burns
smoke signals
to point the way
north.

My studio wall detail shot: a weaving in mostly greens with yellow-white fringe hangs on a dowel. Pinned to the side like a brooch on its chest is a drawing on a grid. The drawing in red ink white negative space and graphite is both graphic and textual: MEWE reads the compass, offset and weighed down (smooshed). A calligraphic script reads “moral compass”. Around the weaving hand other text-drawings concrete poems and hanks of green handspun wool yarn.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

Cosecha. Harvest. So much life happens in a bathrobe.

#multilingual #superpower #growingstrawberries #diarypoem #dagfordag

Three strawberries in a hand that wears diamonds. Table linens in happy colors. Fuzzy bathrobed arm. Bare foot of a human animal with pedicure on kitchen floor, grounded. Life is good.

Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

Ohh, thank you for sharing! Looking forward to learning more about your process. I crochet a lot too and I’m always looking for ways to use the scraps.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

A Trojan horse!

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

These are amazingly beautiful. What fibers are you using? How are you preparing them for spinning?

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

Who makes the clothes? I’ve never thought much about how important clothing and materials are for world building but of course it makes total sense. Textiles make the world.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 11

Lovely colors

Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 10

Summer studio themes: translation, transliteration, poetry, musicality, community, comfort, thread. All things that touch me.

#studionotes #artstudio #drawings #poetry #weaving #fiberarts #translation

A corner of a studio with weavings and text-based drawings (concrete poetry?) on the walls. Books are stacked on top of the short wall and on a cart. On a wooden loom bench sit four cards of my artworks.

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Astri Snodgrass @astrisnodgrass.bsky.social · Jun 10

Isn’t all water holy?

#poemdiary #photodiary #díaadía #daybyday #dayafterday #yesterday

A photograph shot on an iPhone in June. Succulent succulents capture water on the air of a spiderweb. A single stone stands out to me, though there are several pictured.

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