Portland artist’s third Boise mural is his largest ever, and you really can’t miss it
David Carmack Lewis might be from Portland, but he is no stranger to downtown Boise.
The artist’s work can be seen in large displays on the side of the Fowler Apartments building on Myrtle Street and the Watercooler apartment building on Idaho Street.
And now his biggest Boise mural is taking shape on the side of the Key Financial Center building, home to KeyBank, on Idaho Street — and it can be seen as far away as the Interstate 184 Connector coming into the city. Since May 11, Lewis has been creating his third Boise work from about 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. each day, avoiding the city’s hottest hours.
“We really like public art,” said Scott Schoenherr, co-owner of the Key Financial Center building. “We have public art in all of our plazas, and we bought this building about six years ago and we had never done anything, and we always wanted to.”
Schoenherr said it took about 30 seconds for everyone to be on board with the project, and then they put out a call for artists to apply. The owners settled on six finalists who flew to Boise and pitched their concepts, and Lewis emerged as the winner.
The 120-by-50-foot scene features a view that can be found along the South Fork of the Payette River, Lewis said. In the middle will sit a single chair — a common motif in his art. His Watercooler scene also features a chair.
“It’s kind of appropriate in these socially distant, isolated times. But it’s maybe a reminder that being socially distant isn’t always a bad thing,” Lewis said in an interview Wednesday. “So the chair is a way to invite the viewer to imagine themselves in the scene, and it welcomes a human presence without portraying a specific person, gender or race. It’s just you. It’s your chair.”
In total, the mural itself and the equipment needed to get Lewis up to paint will cost about $150,000, according to Schoenherr.
“It’s a pretty expensive undertaking, but we like public art, and my partners and I are willing to invest in it,” said Schoenherr. “We think it’s good for Boise and the timing couldn’t have been better. In a time when things appear to be a bit down in Boise, it’s nice to be able to add some color to downtown.”
Schoenherr said he and his partners at real estate development firm Rafanelli and Nahas love to be involved in the creation of public pieces, and they hope this will be one more thing that helps make downtown Boise “cool.”
“It’s just so neat when I go down to the Boise Plaza and I see kids getting their senior pictures taken or a bride and groom getting their pictures taken, and I think we will see this with this piece of public art,” Schoenherr said. “We have such an awesome downtown that to be able to contribute to it is really important to my partners and I.”
Lewis said the opportunity to paint on such a tall building — it’s 174 feet from top to bottom — is a meditative experience, and he hopes people remember the time period in which the project happened.
“I am grateful this was able to still work out, and I am grateful to be able to give something to the city and also something that marks this moment as well,” Lewis said. “It’s a little lonely (right now), but the chair up on the hillside is a little lonely — but it’s also hopeful, too.”
