Art in Traffic

Enough vacation photos, it is time to get back to some art here on the blog, as well as in the studio (still working on that).

On Dec. 6, there was an opening at the Visual Arts Collective for the exhibition, Art in Traffic: Boise Utility Box Art Exhibition.

In the past, I have talked about the Traffic Box program that is a collaboration with the City Department of Arts & History, several area business committees and the Ada County Highway District.  Local artists are selected (and paid) to create designs for city utility/traffic boxes to help discourage graffiti and to make Boise a nicer place.

I have seen traffic box designs in some other cities, but what makes this program different is that the artists are not painting directly on the box.  They create a design that is photographed and translated into vinyl that is wrapped around the box.  This lends a consistency to all the boxes and looks very nice.  It also allows for media other than painting, like my fabric work.

The Arts & History Department decided to have this exhibition of the original works that grace the traffic boxes (or if the pieces were not available to have another work that was similar in style).


Here are some photos from the opening.  Melissa Chambers' artwork is on the right and I think that is Jany Rae Seda's on the left.

As you can see, they really had to cram the pieces in because there were so many.  We are up to 75 designed boxes so far and the program is continuing.  I think this is great!

Here is my friend, Kathleen Probst, with both of our pieces.  My piece is actually a diptych but there wasn't enough room for both parts.

This piece below is made of paper cuts, another non-painting medium.  This is by Meredith Messinger.

There were maps available of all the traffic box locations and they indicated the location on each label, so if you wanted to go look at the box later, you could find it.

Above is the artwork in the exhibition by Bob Neal and one side of his traffic box below (he must have had more than one piece for the design, too).

This work by Rick Friesen is around two boxes that are right next to each other.

Another one of my friends, Mike Landa, had this in the exhibition, with the actual traffic box below.

This is a more recent traffic box design painted by my friend, Anne Peterson Klahr.

The exhibition will be up through Jan. 31, 2014, at the Visual Arts Collective.