We
can all agree that a 150th birthday is a pretty big deal. The year 2013 marks the
sesquicentennial of our home, a portion of the American West carved out of the
Washington Territory by Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Act of Congress creating
the Idaho Territory on March 4, 1863. This year also marks the city of Boise’s
150th birthday. To commemorate this milestone, Boise’s Department of
Arts and History engaged local groups, from banks to dancers, colleges to
artist collectives to assist residents and visitors in learning about and
honoring Boise’s past. Printmaking studio Wingtip Press embraced the challenge
by inviting twelve female printmakers to create a print portfolio highlighting
historical Boise women. Wingtip Press engaged female-owned TAG Historical
Research & Consulting to assist artists with their research. Run by sisters
Barbara Perry-Bauer and Elizabeth Jacox, TAG
celebrates its twentieth birthday this year. Wingtip founder, Amy Nack, invited me (Amy Pence-Brown) to
craft this foreword. An Idaho native, I’m an art and architectural historian,
curator, artist and freelance writer. Twenty-four women make up the meat of
this portfolio: twelve contemporary artists, twelve historic Boise figures.
Each artist identified a woman in Boise’s history to remember with an edition
of fine art prints. The duos, a vintage figure in our City’s past and a
contemporary maker, proved to be intriguing matches.
Elise Robbins, art student at Boise State and Gene Nora Jessen,
woman pioneer in aviation, might appear to have little in common. Gene Nora,
flight instructor, commercial pilot and astronaut training participant, flew as a demonstration pilot for the Beechcraft
factory. She came to Boise in the 1960s to open a dealership and served on the
Boise Airport Commission. Elise’s screenprint, Wild Blue Yonder, is a tribute to chasing your dreams. The Soda Springs
native will soon continue on to graduate school. Artist Judith Lombardi
selected Boise’s infamous “bird lady.” Judith met Ruth Melichar when her daughter
discovered an injured bird in their yard. After asking around town, everyone
pointed to Ruth as the bird rehabilitator. Ruth’s residence was filled with
small cages, where she compassionately cared for a variety of birds. After
Ruth’s death, Boise’s Animals in Distress Association dedicated the Ruth Melichar
Bird Center.
Cassandra
Schiffler and Surel Mitchell have an artistic connection. A printmaking lab
assistant at Boise State, framer at Brumsfield Gallery and prolific printmaker,
Cassandra met Surel at the College of Idaho during an exhibition featuring Surel’s
large abstract paintings. The two developed personal and stylistic connections. It was a blow to the local art community when Surel
passed away in 2011. In Ode to Surel,
Cassandra pays tribute to the abstract shapes that connect the two women as
artists. Another pair with much in common is Maria Carmen Gambliel and Maria
Andrea Berain. The two women, immigrants from Latin America, bring their
artistic traditions to Boise. Born in Texas, Maria Andrea learned to bake and
decorate cakes for birthdays, quinceneras, and weddings. She moved to Idaho in
the 1950’s and quickly became a sought-after piñatera and ripostera,
a piñata and cake maker, teaching these traditions to generations of Idaho’s Mexican-American
women. Maria Carmen emigrated from Brazil, moved to Idaho in 1995 and is
grounded in community life and traditional cultures as Director of Folk and
Traditional Arts for the Idaho Commission on the Arts. Her tribute to Maria
Andrea is aptly titled Con Cariño,
meaning “with love and affection,” acknowledging their shared passion for
tradition.
Two printmakers in this portfolio featured women with differing
ethnicities. Mary Donato chose to highlight a Basque woman, acknowledging the
important Basque influence on Boise’s past. Juanita (Jay) Hormaechea was born
in 1908 to parents who ran a Basque boarding house where Jay learned
traditional Basque dancing. Pressure on immigrants to assimilate caused the
loss of important traditions until Jay began teaching young people long
forgotten dance moves in the 1940s. Jay can be credited for the revival of
Basque dancing in Boise. Mary’s print appropriately yells out “Show us how to dance, then!” Mary moved
to Boise as a geologist for the US Geological Survey and is a self-taught
artist, specializing in alternative photography printing processes.
Non-traditional student and emerging artist, Julie McCreedy chose to highlight
Holocaust survivor Rose Beal. Rose was in Berlin during the infamous “Night of the
Broken Glass” in 1938, when violence against Jews erupted across the Reich. At
seventeen, Rose moved to America and arrived in Boise in 2004. She believes it
is her moral responsibility to speak against injustice through the Idaho Human
Rights Group. Rose attributes her survival to pure luck. In her print, Glücklich, a German term for “happy,” Julie
features Rose with a good-luck symbol, the horseshoe.
Writing and storytelling play an important role for three women
featured in the portfolio. Amy Nack, whose formal
art training came later in life chose young Boise
diarist Mabel Claire Nelson to honor in her intaglio print. Young Mable
grew up in South Boise and began journaling at age thirteen, documenting
teenage life in Boise between 1912-1917 and died shortly before her eighteenth
birthday. Luma Jasim selected writer and illustrator Mary Hallock Foot, who
arrived in Boise from New York in 1884. Mary’s
greatest literary accomplishment may have been the twelve novels she wrote
portraying the American West from a woman’s point of view. Like Mary, Luma is
familiar with exploring new territories. She came to Boise as an Iraqi refugee
in 2008. After working as an interpreter Luma enrolled at BSU to learn more
about the American art world. Sara Smart identified Margaret Cobb Ailshie as
her historic muse. The first female publisher of the Idaho Statesman, Margaret held the post from 1928-1959. Sara, raised in
the Treasure Valley, is a Boise State art student and her print, titled MCA, appropriately contains a jumble of subtly etched
storylines in the background.
Three prints feature female pioneers of law and justice. Edith
Miller Klein, chosen by artist Jennifer Wood, was the seventeenth woman to
become a practicing Boise lawyer. One of the first women elected to congress,
Edith devoted her time advancing women’s rights. Like Jennifer, an art
professor at BSU, Edith was a competitive swimmer. In an era when women were
not typically investors in mines or real estate entrepreneurs, Hortense Adams
was both. Born in New York, she moved to Idaho and is remembered for plotting
Boise’s Locust Grove addition. For artist Megan Sterling, a native of Idaho
Falls and recent visiting artist and interim faculty at Boise State, Hortense’s
real estate dealing resonated, as Megan’s current artworks reflect the notion
of home and putting down roots. What remains of Sally Reed’s presence in Boise
may be marked simply on a memorial rock on Vista Avenue where her home once
stood. Sally, an ordinary Boise mother, was
separated from her husband, Cecil, when their son, Richard, died in 1967. Based upon an outdated and
discriminatory Idaho code, the court
appointed Cecil administrator because he was male. Sally bravely appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court and,
ultimately, to the U.S. Supreme Court. The
court historically declared the state law unconstitutional and in violation of
the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Artist Katarzyna Cepek was drawn to Sally’s stance against a corrupt
system. Katarzyna’s family immigrated to Idaho
from communist Poland at age twelve, finding herself torn between two worlds
and cultural divides.
Remarkable Women is an important contribution to our City. It is a portfolio of
stories, in written and visual forms, highlighting the lives of a remarkable
group of ladies, some of us passed, some of us living, some of us with great
things still up our sleeves. That’s a pretty special gift indeed.
Happy birthday from all of us, Boise.
Amy Pence Brown
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