Shelley Snodgrass
Shelley Snodgrass is an artist, runner and yogini. I first heard of Shelley as a result of a gallery promotional art page left at YbD. I was quite impressed with the image. Since the Gallery was in Kittery I and another yogini friend of mine, walked to Just Us Chickens, the Gallery, across the bridge and down the road a piece. It turns out that occasionally Shelley visits her family who lives in Kittery, ME. And so it was our good fortune that during one of those visits she stopped by our studio to drop off the promotional sheet of her art showing. (view two of her other pieces on our Facebook page.
Shelley Snodgrass is forty five years old and lives in Freeport ME. She presently works in a gallery in Portland, ME. Shelley comes from an artistic family: her father choosing the medium of photography. She graduated from Maine College of Art in Sculpting. Today she spins exquisite yarns.
She did not use age as an excuse not to try something new. Shelley has been practicing yoga for 3.5 years. Yoga was always something that she wanted to try and took occasional classes. However recently she found a studio in her hometown where she can practice three times a week in the studio, while doing a short practice also at home. She continues to enjoy running and finds the two activities to be complementary.
In the past, her art work reflected nature, as a result of her hobby of gardening; she incorporated plants, flowers and animals in her artwork. But this January she wanted to prepare a unified body of work for her show in the Kittery Gallery. In art school she did lots of figure drawing and it came to her to do a series of yoga poses as an art topic.
This idea was perfect. It incorporated her skills as a sculptor, her talents as a yarn spinner, her experience with figure drawing and Shelley says “I wanted to convey a message about yoga. Yoga has an energy that I wanted to be reflected in the artwork. Running uses a different energy and does not have the stillness. I wanted to capture what that stillness of poses in yoga reflects”.
She chose collage to convey to the viewer the feel that yoga cultivates: physical and emotional strength. Creating the art pieces was even a meditative process; during their fabrication she called upon her own reflections of her favorite poses, knowing what part of the body opens and what one needs to seek balance. Using herself as the model she used various media in her paintings to express this energy that she herself finds in yoga. The drawn line is replaced with yarn or metal, the energy field is reflected with textured paper and the body parts are delicate paper cuts.
Shelley’s artwork was compelling to see in person. Though the photos are beautiful, they do not entirely capture the beauty of the work. She has, in fact, been successful in conveying the energy and beauty of yoga and for this writer also the sacred. I hope to purchase one of her paintings in the future.
Since Shelley has been keeping a steady practice in yoga she finds that she looks at everything in her life with a new awareness. Everything feeds off the other, it is all inter-connected. Yoga helps her art and helps her running. It keeps her aware in all aspects of her life. She attributes the increased joy in her life to her yoga practice since it has helped to shape a new attitude toward all of life. Shelley deals with situations that used to be stressful with greater ease. She focuses more in the moment since keeping a steady yoga practice.
You can see more of Shelley Snodgrass’s work on both her website and her facebook page .
writer’s note:
I and YbD would like to thank Shelley Snodgrass for her generosity of time to do this interview and her graciousness in letting us post a few of her art pieces. Her show closed just three days prior to the interview.