Here We Have Idaho: Material Matters | S. A. Jones and Astri Snodgrass
Audio Guide
Introduction
Audio Recording
Here We Have Idaho: Material Matters:
S. A. Jones and Astri Snodgrass
Here We Have Idaho: Material Matters is the first exhibition within a new Boise Art Museum program that showcases Idaho-based artists whose artworks broaden the boundaries of contemporary art. This program reimagines how the Boise Art Museum engages with artists and artists engage with our community, while highlighting the role of art and artists in reflecting important ideas of our times.
Boise Art Museum is pleased to introduce S. A. (Sharon) Jones and to showcase her artwork in Idaho for the first time in her artistic career. Born in 1944, and currently living in a secluded area of eastern Idaho, Jones has been making paintings for more than 50 years. Her artwork evokes ideas of genetics, cells, otherworldly beings, and the cosmos with vibrant colors painted on irregularly shaped canvases. Boise Art Museum is thrilled to pair Jones’s large-scale paintings with the drawings, paintings, and sculptural artworks of Astri Snodgrass. Snodgrass was born in 1989, and is an Associate Professor of Drawing and Painting at Boise State University. She paints, sews, knits, and weaves paper into works of art that are gentle yet powerful, whether suspended from the ceiling or displayed on the wall. Through her artwork, Snodgrass suggests that we are all interconnected by unseen threads. Both artists challenge art traditions and lend expanded definitions to what a painting can be.
Organized by the Boise Art Museum
Astri Snodgrass, The Shore is an Ancient World, 2025
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
The Shore is an Ancient World, 2025
ink and gouache on Kozo paper with handspun fringe
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, As a Spider on the Wind, 2024
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
As a Spider on the Wind, 2024
ink and gouache on Kozo paper
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
“I like to work with familiar materials in unfamiliar ways. The primary material I work with is paper because I’m interested in how bodily it is; it is fragile, it breathes, it has memory.” – Astri Snodgrass
Astri Snodgrass has lived in Boise since 2018. She is a practicing artist and an Associate Professor of Drawing and Painting at Boise State University. Her mother taught elementary school art, and her Norwegian grandmother was a gifted seamstress and knitter, based on deep-seated traditions in Norwegian culture. Knitting, crocheting, weaving, and sewing were continually present during the artist’s childhood. Studies in Norway and Argentina helped shape her interests in language, light, and perception. Snodgrass transforms letters into patterns, paper into fabric, and fabric into photography – always pushing against the pre-prescribed functions of a material. The act of translation, from one medium to another, has formed the basis for Snodgrass’s visual artmaking vocabulary. Through the artworks in this exhibition, made from 2019 to 2025, she untangles dominant ideas about gender, sexuality, craft, and labor and revels in the action of play; the interconnectedness of humankind; and what it means to unlearn what does not serve us.
Snodgrass holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Alabama, and a BA in Art and Spanish from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Studios Midwest, Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, VCCA, and Vermont Studio Center.
S.A. Jones, Red Zip, 1995
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Red Zip, 1995
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
S.A. Jones, Snakey Brown, 2009
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Snakey Brown, 2009
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
S.A. Jones, Kimberlite Pipe, 1990
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Kimberlite Pipe, 1990
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
S. A. Jones
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
“The use of systems as either the subject matter, the organizing principle, or as a way to describe aspects of forms is central to nearly all of my paintings” – S. A. Jones
S.A. (Sharon) Jones lives in a secluded area outside of North Fork, Idaho. She has been making paintings, mostly as a solitary endeavor, for more than 50 years, with rare exhibitions celebrating her art. This exhibition is the first time her paintings have been showcased in Idaho. Colossal painted forms appear conjoined and suspended within her colorful and organically shaped canvases that are intended to hang directly against the wall. A dynamic push-and-pull between abstraction and realism lends a powerful tension to the paintings. Suggestions of internal and external anatomy, cells, fossils, and rocks recall her long career as a veterinary surgeon and her passion for geology. Jones’s paintings foretell eventual mortality while radiating optimism toward an endless universe that stretches into the unknown. The influence of two major art movements in the 1960s, Op Art and Minimalism, can be seen in her focus on shapes and forms. By examining her subject matter and individualized painting style, the viewer is given access to a portal into the artist’s creative mind.
Jones holds a BA from Scripps College, Claremont, California, and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Kansas State University. She attended the Max Beckmann Graduate Painting Program at the Brooklyn Museum School, New York.
S.A. Jones, Frank, 2005
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Frank, 2005
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
S.A. Jones, Kilauea Dome, 1994
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Kilauea Dome, 1994
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, The Book of Sand, 2025
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
The Book of Sand, 2025
ink and gouache on Kozo paper with handspun fringe
Courtesy of the Artist
S.A. Jones, Parabola, 2010
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Parabola, 2010
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, Language Lets Us Hold What’s Changing, 2022
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
Language Lets Us Hold What’s Changing, 2022
ink, gouache, and acrylic on sewn Kozo paper
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, Body Script, 2022
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
Body Script, 2022
acrylic and dye-based ink on sewn Kozo paper
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, To Spin a Cloud, 2023
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
To Spin a Cloud, 2023
ink on Kozo paper
Courtesy of the Artist
S.A. Jones, Under Red, 1995
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Under Red, 1995
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
S.A. Jones, Big Carl, 2010
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Big Carl, 2010
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, Actual/Factual, 2023
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
Actual/Factual, 2023
ink, gouache, matte medium, and sewing thread on Kozo paper
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, Stitching Cobwebs, 2023
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
Stitching Cobwebs, 2023
sewing thread, matte medium, Kozo paper, Rives BFK papers, and cotton crochet thread
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass – Sketches and Studies case
Audio Recording
Sketches and Studies
Through preparatory sketchbook drawings and small-scale crochet studies, Snodgrass explores concepts and aesthetic approaches for her large-scale artworks. These sketchbooks give insights into the artist’s thought processes and the way she transforms letters and text into patterns, which then become further abstracted in her completed artworks.
top row:
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
6 Sketchbooks, 2022-2024
Courtesy of the Artist
bottom row:
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
- Pregnancy Dream, 2023
- Echo of an Ascent, 2023
- Symbiosis, 2023
- Sinew, 2023
- Deadheading, 2023
- Time Trellis, 2023
- Territory, 2023
- Loops and Lines, 2023
mercerized cotton embroidery floss
Courtesy of the Artist
S.A. Jones, Memory Slit, 2008
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Memory Slit, 2008
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, The Longer the Light Stays (16), 2019
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
The Longer the Light Stays (16), 2019
cyanotype on muslin
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, The Longer the Light Stays (15), 2019
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
The Longer the Light Stays (15), 2019
cyanotype on muslin
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, Navels and Stars, 2022
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
Navels and Stars, 2022
acrylic and dye-based ink on sewn Kozo paper
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, To Open Eyes and Hands, 2020
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
To Open Eyes and Hands, 2020
fabric dye and thread on muslin
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, The Longer the Light Stays artwork grid
Audio Recording
top-bottom, left – right:
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
The Longer the Light Stays (21), 2019
cyanotype on muslin
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
The Longer the Light Stays (20), 2019
cyanotype on muslin
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
The Longer the Light Stays (8), 2019
cyanotype on muslin
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
The Longer the Light Stays (5), 2018
cyanotype on muslin
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, The Longer the Light Stays (17), 2019
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
The Longer the Light Stays (17), 2019
cyanotype on muslin
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, The Memory of the Fingers, 2024
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
The Memory of the Fingers, 2024
ink and gouache on Kozo paper with handspun fringe
Courtesy of the Artist
S.A. Jones, Benchland, 2001
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Benchland, 2001
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
Astri Snodgrass, A Picket Line Against a Tidal Wave, 2023
Audio Recording
Astri Snodgrass
(b. 1989, St. Charles, Illinois)
A Picket Line Against a Tidal Wave, 2023
ink, gouache, wax pastel, matte medium, and collaged Kozo paper on Strathmore drawing paper
Courtesy of the Artist
S.A. Jones, Space Clock, 1970
Audio Recording
S.A. Jones
(b. 1944, Phoenix, Arizona)
Space Clock, 1970
acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Artist
