International Market

Sep 07 2015

Boise International Market Burned Down

By melissasasichambers Tarpage

The Boise International Market has been destroyed by a kitchen fire.

I’ve been sitting here with my fingers resting on the keyboard trying to figure out how to say what I am finding it very hard to find words to express. I’m not even sure why I feel so personally bereft by the black hole which has replaced the colorful, vibrant, inspiring place that was the Boise International Market. I just know its existence had made me happy, and hopeful. It helped me believe that I live in a city which is opening its heart and way of life to other cultures — to an appreciation for different foods, styles of dress, music, visual art, and above all, the people themselves who share their spirits with us through all of those things.

The Boise International Market was the inspiration behind my design for the traffic box on the corner of Curtis and Edson. I created a 4′ x 10′ tarpestry covered with ethnic motifs inspired by the patterns I saw on clothing in Thara Rita’s shop, and upholstry in the seating area of The Goodness Land.

I enjoyed a lovely pot of tea drunk from a cup of my choosing at Joyful Tea, and had coffee several times from Kahve Coffee. But I didn’t take full advantage of all that the Market had to offer. My plan was to eat at all the restaurants eventually. Of course that was the plan. But I forgot that everything changes and it doesn’t always work out that what I want will be there when I’m ready for it. I had to be reminded yet again that “just doing it” is the only way to ensure I get it done.

There is a site called gofundme.com where you can donate to the International Market Family Fund to help raise money for the individual vendors. We need to do everything we can to assure that places like the Boise International Market and especially the people who make those places happen know they are valued. Because a community which does not express the happy, hopeful, inspiring diversity of life – like the Boise International Market, is not a place anyone would want to call home.

(Just doing it!)

I look forward to the rise of this phoenix from the ashes.

May 17 2015

Go! No…Stop, Look, Listen. Now Go Go!

By melissasasichambers Tarpage

I finished the artwork for my next traffic box — actually it’s a HAWK Pedestrian Crossing Control box — and then got word that Rena Vandewater and I had been assigned each other’s locations.

Ooops.

Potentially that could have been a real pain — particularly if the boxes had been markedly different in size. Or especially if my actual location had not been a Pedestrian Control Box.

But that wasn’t the case.

In fact both boxes are basically the same size, and both are HAWK Pedestrian Control boxes.

They are just on different streets. Rena’s artwork will grace the box I thought I was doing on Cassia and Orchard, and my artwork will be on the corner of Edson and Curtis.

Those locations make so much more sense when you know that Rena does wonderful patterny, colorful paintings of orchards — get it? She’s assigned Orchard St.

And mine is inspired by patterns I saw at the International Market — which is off of Curtis. I’m actually hoping to display the entire tarpestry at the International Market after the box is wrapped this summer.