Interview & Photography by Brooke Burton © Boise City Department of Arts & History, Edited by HJ Moon & Brooke Burton Rachael Mayer is a fiber artist who was commissioned by the Boise City Dept. of Arts & History to create and install artwork for the Linen District Fence in 2022. Rachael’s skills in sewing, weaving, and quilting have been passed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter. This is a pattern (see what we did there?) commonly found in the tradition of fiber-based craft, the contributions of which have been historically overlooked and undervalued as “women’s wo ..read more

Interview & Photography by Brooke Burton © Boise City Department of Arts & History Luma Jasim is an Iraqi-American interdisciplinary artist living and working in Boise. She possesses joy, curiosity, and a love for movement and dance; and, as she puts it, a hunger for life and learning. Born in Baghdad, Luma shares with us the heartbreak of one life stolen under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, and the beginning of another life after immigrating to the United States. Here, she took the opportunity to find her creative voice, and earn a (second!) bachelor’s and master’s degree, this ..read more

Interview & Photography by Brooke Burton © Boise City Department of Arts & History Noel B. Weber, founder of the longtime creative cornerstone Classic Design Studio on Myrtle Street, started in the sign painting business over 45 years ago, and, we’re just going to say it, he is a master of his craft. His custom sign work has consistently enhanced the landscape of downtown businesses in Boise and beyond (ask him about his work with Disney!). Noel has completed large-scale murals for the City of Boise while the studio’s fabrication and design services have contributed to multiple public ..read more

Interview & Photography by Brooke Burton © Boise City Department of Arts & History Jean Shon, Artist-in-Residence at the James Castle House, is a visual artist making image based work to create a space for sitting with melancholy and loss. She draws inspiration from memory and from items gathered from her family’s archives: journals, documents, letters. She shares with us about a search for closure; on her father’s death, and the mystery surrounding her grandfather’s death in the Korean War. But what she finds is far more valuable: meaning is found in the in-between, and that honoring ..read more

Interview & Photography by Brooke Burton © Boise City Department of Arts & History Maria Michurina, Artist-in-Residence at the James Castle House, immigrated from Russia with her husband, Pavel, to the United States in 2010, the first of multiple pilgrimages. But first, there is a war between Russia and Ukraine; something she says is difficult to comprehend and impossible to avoid thinking about. Although physically removed, for Maria, the effects are wide: relationships, energy, actions. And there is a weight, a question, “Will things ever be normal again?” Despite this, she speaks w ..read more

Interview & Photography by Brooke Burton © Boise City Department of Arts & History Miguel Angel Almeida is a Boise based artist and illustrator whose work you’ve seen around town if you’ve gotten a cup of coffee, a beer, groceries, or checked out a book from the library. (His design is one selected for the new library cards!) As a first-generation Mexican-American, he draws inspiration from the culture of his family’s roots, recalling the sights, smells, and folk art from trips back to visit his Abuelito and Abuelita. (Oh the smells from their kitchen!) We dug in to find out his idea ..read more

Interview & Photography by Brooke Burton © Boise City Department of Arts & History Boise Contemporary Theater is the City of Boise’s Cultural Ambassador for the 2022-2023 term. Before rehearsals for Jodeen Revere’s one woman play, The Persistent Guest, we caught up with artistic director Benjamin Burdick to find out how contemporary theater is so much more than a show. But first we got the scoop on Burdick’s uncommon experience in Hollywood (find out which t.v. show you’ve seen him on,) his childhood dream job, and his take on affirmative action. Why do we need contemporary storytelli ..read more

Interview & Photography by Brooke Burton © Boise City Department of Arts & History Antonius-Tín Bui is a self described polydisciplinary artist working with cut paper, portraiture, and performance art. We spent a morning in conversation about the unique opportunity to simply play within their creative process, a luxury of a ten week residency at the James Castle House. What does play look like? For them, it’s getting grounded in an unfamiliar space, trying new materials, and discovering what your spirit is really craving, even if it means experimentation: trying, failing, trying again ..read more

Interview by Brooke Burton © Boise City Department of Arts & History Photography by Dorinda Angelucci and used with permission.  Vinnie Bagwell is a figurative sculptor living and working in Yonkers, New York. She is the creator of the newly installed bronze resin works at the Erma Hayman House in Boise’s historic River Street Neighborhood. We spoke with Vinnie about how she came to work in bronze and her uncanny talent for naturalistic representation, a chance discovery made after she’d stopped painting. She shares with us her approach to public art as a business and her surpri ..read more

Interview & Photography by Brooke Burton © Boise City Department of Arts & History Emily Culver, multimedia object maker, problem solver, and Artist-In-Residence at the James Castle House shares with us her work in progress and how she wants to form a bridge between objecthood and the body. We asked a lot of questions and Emily delivered. We asked: What is OOO? What’s your favorite color, food, hierarchy? Why are we uncomfortable with our own biology? Why metalsmithing and not painting? In examining her work, a lot of borderline taboo words came up, starting with the letters “P” and ..read more