Nampa Street Art

Rebecca L. Fisk

Nampa Street Art – A Brief Overview

“Open Invitation” by Idaho-native Lauren Kistner is one of the many art-wrapped utility boxes sponsored by the cities of Nampa and Boise as part of their “art in public” initiatives. The original painting is watercolor paint and ink mixed media. The designs for these traffic utility signal wraps were professionally printed and wrapped on a sticky plastic material and applied to the boxes similarly to a graphics car wrap. Kistner's work from this series is based on the geothermal activity and other natural phenomenon that occurs throughout the state of Idaho. I love the texture and combinations of techniques and colors she uses. They truly emulate the landscape in Yellowstone, the deserts around Boise, and the mountains and waterways throughout the state.

Known simply as “The Horse Mural,” according to Nampa's City website and “Galloping Horses” according to “Waymarking”, a website devoted to cataloging sites around the world, this bas relief sculpture takes up the entire length and most of the height of the Yesteryear Shoppe in downtown Nampa on the corner of 12^th Avenue and 1^st Street South. Indicated as approximately 15 by 60 feet and possibly made of fiberglass, the mural is unfortunately not cited or recognized by any official source and artist is unknown. It's nevertheless famous, as all asked residents nod and say, “Yes, the horse mural! It's pretty cool, but no, I don't know who did it.” 

The Dewey Palace Hotel Mural was originally painted in 1984 by artists Eva Johnston, Olivia Vincent, Mary Van De Bogart and Sue Wilhelm in 1984. Commissioned by the city in celebration of the Nampa Centennial, the image depicts the famous Dewey Palace in it's imagined glory days of the early 1900's. Also showcasing some of the technology of the time, the motor car, the airplanes, and in the far right corner, a red-roofed vendor's push cart for the tourists. The mural was restored in 1991 by artists Ava Race, Doris Cusic, Joy Tuckness and returning artists Eva Johnston and Olivia Vincent, and then the vinyl printed overlay in 2012 by the Nampa Arts Commission. You can see the portions of the original mural and the fine detail and soft color versus the print limitations of the vinyl overlay but it is helping temporarily preserve the original piece and its historical significance.

This mural by Candis Redfield (Darrah) is painted on the backside of one of Nampa's most famous businesses, The Flying M Coffee Garage. Candis is a local Nampa resident and this piece was part of the 2014 Nampa Art Collective's public art initiative. Candis is a mixed media artist and in this piece, she identifies it as symbolizing “our community and what the future holds for us. I wanted to capture the young generations striving for a better future that involves sustainability and our love for the environment” (Idaho Statesman, July 2014). In choosing to create a narrative with a limited color range, the artist is effectively highlighting the “black and white” simplicity of Idaho's past, with it's mining and farming cultures, with the new reality of our future being open and undefined in open, blue skies, under which sits a contemplative youth holding a single yellow flower of hope who has just parachuted out of a plane. The mix of nostalgia, present, and future is a great analogy for Idaho, and Nampa in particular. 


 This sculpture is untitled and by an anonymous artist. I'm calling it “Garbage” so I can mention that “Garbage” as art is concealing garbage as function, i.e. the dumpster outside a cafe downtown. I love this piece. It's mixed media, mostly metal pieces soldered and welded together in various stages of rust and aged paint. The patina is just gorgeous. Many of the metal pieces have corrugated or dimpled texture and the veins of rust etching through the paint creates a beautiful merging of nature and technology, decay leading to new creations. The sculpture is approximately 36 by 72 inches, sitting atop metal pipes about 10-12 inches tall.