Art in the Park

In the blink of a week, Groom and I added another thousand miles to our van going over the desert and through the woods to Boise’s Art in the Park, a fund-raising event for BAM, the Boise Art Museum. After setting up our booth in the lovely Julia Davis Park, we explored this boom town of the wild western 1860’s.

Of course, as the chronometer continues to spin through time, this capital city has adopted more of a modern metropolitan feel than its mining history, although some of the historic buildings still exist.

The first thing a person needs to know about the third largest city in the Pacific Northwest is that it is pronounced Boy-see, not Boy-zee. The locals tend to admonish ignorant pronunciation.

I don’t know if it’s the second thing anybody needs to know, but we found a restaurant serving “Trailer Park Cuisine.” Now who could pass up that opportunity? Groom and I were even offered the best seat in the house, a vintage car on blocks. You can see me leaning in toward it and then Groom ordering from their classy menu.

This was the luxury view from our window while we ate macaroni and cheese with sweet potato fries. It came with “trashy sauce,” which turned out to be sour cream and brown sugar plus a “secret ingredient.” Greasy and queasy.

As I’m typing this, I’m pondering our decision-making skills. Groom and I had just spent nine hours in van (interpret close quarters) and knowing we were going to spend more than 30 hours in our 8’ X 8’ booth over the next three days, we still chose to eat our white trash lunch cooped up in a car?!

In spite of the long hours required of us during the show, we’d drag our carcasses out of the comfy bed early each morning. Making certain our booth was business-ready, we’d procure a cup of caffeine from the artists’ hospitality booth and take a walk, meandering with coffee in one hand and camera in the other: A sweet way for us to start the day.

And you are now looking at some of the images we decided to put into our cameras.

Saturday was the anniversary of September 11th, so as we passed by these arches on a bridge, I peeked through one of the windows and noticed the flag, an appropriate symbol to memorialize. Speaking of American emblems, does anybody else see the irony in the next photograph? As the eagle represents freedom, it breaks my heart to see these poor birds behind bars looking so depressed. I really really hope this is not a sign of things to come…

Feeling momentarily sad, iconic Abe Lincoln made us feel a whole lot better with his generous hugs.

On a lighter note, Boise seemed to be filled with lots of color and personality this year. We stayed in the same hotel as KC and the Sunshine Band who played at the Taco Bell Arena on Wednesday, September 8, the same evening we arrived. We saw their limo and very colorful driver, “Rod.” Really, you must follow this link to his website page, where you can see a few more of his outfits. I spoke with this enterprising fellow and learned he has 365 outfits and wears one of them every time he leaves his house.

He is the most well-known and requested limo driver in the area and gives every customer the red carpet treatment (or blue or purple or…), regardless if it’s a trip to the airport or a night on the town. So, if you’re ever in Boise and need some entertaining transportation, you know where to find it.

The last shot is blurry, I know, but the lighting so early Monday morning as we got outta Dodge, heading east to go west, was too purty to pass up.

Of course, we’re happy to be home, but as Art in the Park was good (we sold all but two necklaces!), we must immediately gather and focus our creative powers for our last two shows coming up in rapid succession, the Corvallis Fall Festival and the Sacramento Arts Festival.

As Kimmmm asks, “How’s that hurry-up-and-be-creative-Now going?”