Through calligraphic handwriting, drawing, and handspinning, I reimagine the sexist trope of the spinster. She is chronically underestimated and dismissed for both her association with so-called “women’s work” and for symbolizing a supposedly pitiful, lonely life outside of marriage and motherhood. In my work, the spinster is a queer figure, a storyteller and a maker, who represents creative potential.
Tall paper scrolls both reveal and conceal handwritten text, suggesting competing desires to both encrypt and disseminate information. Coded language and self censorship have long been creative strategies of survival and solidarity. In their love letters, Rachel Carson, the author of the 1962 book Silent Spring, and Dorothy Freeman, developed their own codes: letters destined for “the strong box” were ones to be destroyed after reading.
The word drafting can refer to writing, drawing, and, in spinning, pulling fibers to be twisted into yarn. Drafting implies revision, or re-vision, in the sense of looking again: at women’s work, at queer history, and at a culture that regards textiles — and their makers — as disposable.
Astri Snodgrass (she/her, b. 1989) is a visual artist and educator. She holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Alabama and a BA in Art and Spanish from Luther College. Studies in Norway and Argentina deepened her fascination with language, cultural heritage, drawing, and textiles. She has exhibited widely throughout the US in solo and group shows, at spaces such as COOP Gallery (Nashville), Channel to Channel (Nashville), the Fuel and Lumber Company (Birmingham), and the Boise Art Museum. Her works are included in numerous private and public collections, including Luther College, Minot State University, and the Boise City Department of Art and History. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Studios Midwest, Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Vermont Studio Center. Snodgrass is an Associate Professor of Drawing and Painting at Boise State University. She lives in Boise, Idaho with her wife and their dog.
Website: www.astrisnodgrass.com
Instagram: @astrijohanna
See the May 30–June 28, 2025 Exhibitions Press Release here.