My Traffic Box Wrap: Joseph A. Snyder's Whittlin at State & 17th Street in Boise, Idaho

In the fall of 2011 my documentation photos of my Grandfather's carvings were installed on a traffic light utility box on the southwest corner of State and 17th Street in Boise, Idaho. The project is fostered by Boise Art and History and is funded by The Mayor's Neighborhood Reinvestment Program, Capital City Development Corporation, and Boise City. My traffic box was in partnership with the West Boise Neighborhood Association. Trademark Sign Company fabricates and installs the wraps. 


My Grandfather, Joseph A. Snyder, carved hundreds of objects after he and his wife retried to the mountains of Idaho City in 1989. I moved back to my home town of Idaho City in the summer of 2010 to live with my grandparents and document my Grandfathers life and his creative work. I mostly accomplished this goal, but procrastinated many things which I surely regret now as he passed away this year on August 27th. Now that he is gone, I feel prouder of having his work displayed semi-permanently on the Boise street where hundreds of passer-buyers a day view it.

His obituary can be viewed on the Idaho Statesman site 

The carving's featured on the traffic box come from one of my favorite series of characters he "Whittled" called the Ekalakah Gang. Ekalakah is a tiny ranch town in Montana. My Grandparents lived outside of this town together when they were first married. There were a lot of characters in this small town as is common for small remote places. He created these carvings based off his meetings and experiences with the people in Ekalakah.

My grandfather always had stories to go along with his creations. The stories were not always told the same way, or he may make up a new story all together. More often than not when I asked him about a character he would create a different tale than the one he may have told me just days prior. He was a great storyteller. I think his creations lend themselves for viewers to make up their own silly western stories. I like to joke that Boise let me put up a fighting drunk and some lesbian sheep herders on the streets of Boise.

So next time you are driving down State Street remember to look over at my Grandpa's Whittled western characters!

You can read more about his life, work and creative process in an older blog, listed below.

 

Going West on States Street 

 

Facing States Street itself 

I hadn't previously added the project to this art blog, because quite frankly, I have been lazy. However, now I am dusting off my art practice and hope to have new posts to share in the near future. I like to keep this art blog in chronological order so a little updating is necessary in order to move forward.

I am currently still in Idaho City and hope to document more of my Grandfathers objects he created as well as some of the objects he passionately collected.

The Grandfather Project 2010

This is my new project and life endeavor. In a few weeks I will be relocating to Idaho City, ID to start work on what, at this time, I am calling The Grandfather Project. If you would like to support this project financially, it is listed on a website called Kickstarter.com, which allows artists of various sorts to solicit their friends for "pledges" to complete their project.

Here is the link to my Kickstarter platform, pledges run through AMAZON.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alisonsweet/the-grandfather-project




The Grandfather project will be video documentation of a lifetime of stories told by my grandfather, Joseph A. Snyder. Joseph Snyder is currently 90 years old and has been married to my grandmother, Rosemary Snyder, for 64 years. They have lived their entire lives in the western United States and are thus living pieces of 20th century western life and culture.

Anyone who has lived for 90 years would have an interesting perspective on life to share but additionally Joseph Snyder has lived an incredibly diverse intriguing existence that is worth hearing about. When his life began he was put up for adoption, only to be reclaimed by his Jehovah witness mother at the age of six. His mother then lied about his age in order for him to work in the coal mines at an earlier age and this is just the very beginning……..



Joseph and Rosemary Snyder continue to live independently in their log home in the rather remote Idaho mountains above Idaho City, Idaho.They now live a quite life, playing a daily game of cribbage together. They are both avid readers and hobbyists with my Grandfather carving and my Grandmother making quilts and knitting.


Their Duquette Pines home near Idaho City, Idaho



While, Personal documentation accounts are immediately valuable to the family and interested parties, these first hand cultural narratives gain even more historical value and relevance as time passes and there is no longer anyone around to provide the perspective from their generation.

The Grandfather Project is scheduled to take place summer of 2010 -- as the project gets underway short stories will be available for view online along with photos and project updates to project pledgers.

In addition to the video documentation, there were also a be a photos series based on my grandparents own artistic endeavors and a digital archive of the six generations of photographs that are in their possession.

After the completion of the video recordings, a longer video piece will be available as well as a series of fine art photographs that will be shown at Five15 Arts in Phoenix, Arizona in the fall of 2010. The work will also be shown at The Phoenix Art Museum June of 2011.


Playing Cribbage -- November 2009






Myself with my grandfather in their home, November 2009

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and I would greatly appreciate it if you would consider making a pledge on Kickstarter.com

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alisonsweet/the-grandfather-project