31 Jul 2024/54 min/Post Wook
MLow X Post Wook
Collage artist Post Wook explains The Astronomer's Daughter, a Bitcoin ordinals project built from real satellite data, and the political campaign playbook she uses to sell art.
Natasha Chomko, who works as Post Wook, opens by untangling her name: it is a jam band festival reference, not Star Wars, and the Instagram handle was grabbed for an abandoned lifestyle blog about wooks becoming adults. She has made collage since 2007, and her craft claim sets the tone for the whole conversation: the difference between good and bad collage is how well you can force perception, giving flat images depth and matching color and light until incompatible sources read as one photograph. Around 2019 and 2020 her work announced itself as collage with visibly distinct layers; now she chases seamless realism, which she ties to a post lockdown appetite for a little bit of real life. She calls her six years of work a visual diary.
The centerpiece is The Astronomer's Daughter. Her father has worked at NASA for 43 years, so she asked him how to source satellite data, then met the Bitcoin side through a Twitter Space: an artist named Paris explained ordinals and Prism of Counterfeit Cult explained sats, which clicked through her dad's coin collecting (sats are essentially pennies, readable by date and mint). She compiled roughly 400 candidate dates of notable space events, spent months hunting sats whose block dates matched, and derived every trait from the real data for that date: landscape from season, sky from constellation, correct moon phase, nearby planets, and a transparent year filter for cohesion. The build ran backwards from her normal process because every trait had to work with every other trait.
The marketing section is the most concrete go to market account MLow has captured: she markets the way she won political campaigns, hard and fast, with phone calls and DMs starting in late April for a late June drop, and a strict two line first message with no links. The conversation also ranges through her campaign years (2,000 dollars a month, no boundaries at 23), a warm exchange about Shabbat and the lunar calendar with MLow, her theory that soul in art is audible and visible, and a level headed take on AI: low effort outputs will develop a sense of shame while blockchain becomes the authenticator the deepfake era requires.
What this episode teaches
- Collage is forced perception
Chomko says the secret separating good collage from bad is whether you can force perception: give a flat image depth and know color and light well enough that sources which never coexisted read as one cohesive photograph. The skill is making sources agree, not cutting.
- Market like a campaign
Her transfer from politics: you need the majority of votes to win, and the majority of dollars to get in front of the people who give you those votes. For a drop that means deliberate reach, phone calls and DMs for two months, not hoping the timeline notices.
- The two line DM formula
First messages get two lines maximum and zero links: say exactly why you are messaging and ask if they want more info. Then let people choose their channel, a call or a one pager, and accept that some who never reply will still buy two or three off the timeline.
- Know which kind of seller you are
She is honest that she cannot court one collector for six months for a hundred ETH sale, but she absolutely has the skill set to hit up a hundred people for one ETH each. Matching sales strategy to temperament is the real move.
- Data driven traits force a backwards build
Because every trait in The Astronomer's Daughter derives from real satellite data, every trait had to be compatible with every other trait. She had to build in pieces, backwards, instead of color grading one cohesive image at the end.
- Soul in the work is detectable
Her test for art versus content is energy: she contrasts Taylor Swift's technically perfect but emotionless delivery since Reputation with Billie Eilish, and paycheck landscape photography with the same locations shot by someone who adds feeling. Viewers can tell when part of you is in it.
- Blockchain becomes the authenticator
Her AI thesis: AI's creation destroys authenticity, which recreates the need for authentication, and blockchain fills it. She thinks mass adoption arrives through verifying whether a picture of Joe Biden or the Pope's puffer jacket is real, not through commodified digital assets.
- Diversify and keep the job
A stool cannot stand on one leg: even top artists have income outside web3, they just do not post about the nine to five. She also tells new artists to ignore 2021 nostalgia and take realistic pricing, because a 0.3 edition is a hundred dollar print sale, and that is a win.
The conversation, topic by topic
The name and the practice
Post Wook comes from the festival scene (a wook is a jam band reference, not Star Wars); the Instagram handle was registered for a lifestyle blog about leaving the festival scene that never happened. She has made collage since 2007 from landscape imagery, paintings, 3D objects and vectors, her work sells at Target, and her current goal is making every piece look like a real photo.
Forcing perception and the visual diary
She explains her craft as forcing perception, matching color, light and depth so the viewer thinks this clearly is not a real photo but it could be. Around 2019 to 2020 she wanted the layers visibly distinct; post lockdown she and her audience want more real life. She calls the six year body of work a visual diary of where her head has been, and MLow says he uses his own art the same way. Her split registers serve different buyers: Target takes the pieces for the average Joe, MAPS takes the ones for psychonauts.
Campaign life and boundaries
She studied political science and worked campaigns, starting art specifically to get away from politics. She is blunt about conditions: worked to death for about 2,000 dollars a month, a good week meant getting Saturday afternoon off. Having since employed 23 to 25 year olds, she now sees a job is about the service you provide, not the experience you gain, and says she would only return with the boundaries she has today. MLow, who studied public policy, trades stories about campaign friends dropping everything at Thanksgiving.
Shabbat and the lunar calendar
MLow explains he takes off Friday night and Saturday for Shabbat and credits it with preventing burnout. Chomko's fiance is Jewish and gave her an intro book called On One Foot; discovering Judaism runs on the lunar calendar delighted her. She recalls two practicing Jews on a campaign staff who never took Shabbat off, which she reads as how that life breaks people down.
The moon as perspective
The two things she will always lock eyes with are her mother and the moon. The moon anchors her symbolism because it is always full in space yet looks different from everywhere on Earth: perspectives will always differ, you never get the full truth, and there is always a dark side you cannot see. She adds that as a woman the 28 day cycle resonates doubly.
Genesis of The Astronomer's Daughter
Her father has worked for NASA for 43 years; she grew up on space flight centers and astronaut ice cream. In December 2023 she decided on a large scale time based project for 2024 and asked her dad how to find satellite data. In January a Twitter Space led to an art panel where Paris explained ordinals, then Prism, co-founder of Counterfeit Cult, explained sats: block times, rarity, block height. Her dad collects coins, so sats as pennies with readable dates made it click.
Building from satellite data
She listed about 400 candidate dates of notable space events and spent months finding sats whose block dates matched. Every trait ties to the data: the landscape matches season and month, the sky matches the constellation, planets near Earth that date appear, the moon shows its correct phase, and a transparent year filter unifies the palette. Art was finished around April for the late June drop, and she says she is not done.
Marketing hard and fast
She markets the way she won campaigns: get on the phone, explain the concept, ask what people think, and treat feedback seriously (if everyone says red, look into red). Outreach started late April for a late June drop. Her first message formula is two lines and no links, stating exactly what she is asking. Some great phone conversations produced no sales, some silent DMs bought two or three, so effort and revenue never correlate cleanly. On curators versus self marketing artists, she says there is no wrong answer.
What makes art good
Beyond rule of thirds and depth, her answer is energy. She hears no soul in Taylor Swift's music since Reputation, contrasts it with the emotion in Billie Eilish, and applies the same test to landscape photographers shooting beautiful places just to pay bills. Get right with yourself and the belief shows; she cites Joe Dispenza's Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and says the album cover work she manifests keeps arriving in her inbox.
Creation and destruction
Answering MLow's seasonal question, she frames life as creation and destruction in tandem: summer is creation, winter destruction, and fall shows the exchange, leaves falling to feed next year's growth unless an HOA makes you rake them. The destruction in a career is the sacrifice each creation demands. The exchange ends with omelet jokes and the lore that the Astronomer's Daughter's dad makes good eggs, sunny side up because yellow is his favorite color.
AI, shame and authentication
She has no fear of AI taking over: low effort AI, like Nicki Minaj posting raw Midjourney outputs, will develop a sense of shame, while good AI work such as Delta Sauce's is consistently and recognizably his. Deepfakes worry her going into election season, which is exactly why blockchain authentication becomes necessary. As a collage artist she learned the Fair Use Act early, plays it safe (no Lucasfilm screen grabs), and increasingly shoots her own source photos.
Jobs, robots and retraining
From her campaign work on advanced manufacturing: you no longer need someone screwing on toothpaste caps, but you need someone managing the robot. She argues good legislation would force employers who deploy AI to fund training programs for the workers displaced, and calls TikTok doom posting about all jobs vanishing in five years absurd; the shift will be gradual, fall between summer and winter.
Advice for new artists
New artists have the advantage of no 2021 to compare against: take the realistic pricing, celebrate the hundred dollar edition sale, and ignore veterans waiting for art to become the meta again. Use the honest two line DM, invest in the people you actually want to talk to, hop metas only if they align with your vision (hers is long form conceptual work tied to blockchain), and diversify: even top artists keep jobs they never post about.
In their words
“The secret to collage, and what makes good collage versus bad collage, is how well you can force perception.”
Post Wook“It's not about the opportunity you can give me. It's about how I can help you.”
Post Wook“There's always gonna be the dark side of the moon, the thing that you don't know and you don't see, because you're not that powerful. And that's okay. You're a human.”
Post Wook“I market things the way that I won campaigns, which is just hard and fast.”
Post Wook“A stool can't stand on one leg.”
Post WookCite this conversation
Post Wook in conversation with MLow, "MLow X Post Wook," The MLow Show, 31 Jul 2024. https://show.mlow.xyz/e/2024-07-31-mlow-x-post-wook.html. Quoted from a machine transcript.
Quotations come from machine transcripts. Check wording against the audio before republishing.