The Saddle Blanket Weaver By Georgia Wier On a drive back to Oregon in 2013, after having spent ten years working as a folklorist in Colorado, I arranged to make a stop in Idaho to meet Linda Morton-Keithley.
The Work of Idaho Artist Sara Joyce Uncovered By Sheila Petticord Photos by Mark LaMoreaux In the spring of 1990, I was newly divorced, searching for a fresh direction in life and taking art classes at the University
A Once-Famous Idaho Artist Undergoes a Revival By Teddy Khteian-Keeton Photos from The Life and Art of Archie Teater, by Lester D. Taylor Before the death in 1981 of Patricia Teater, wife of the late Idaho artist Archie
From the Beet Fields to the World Stage By Ana Maria Cuneo Last February, I caught Cecilia Violetta Lopez’s performance of Violetta, the leading role in Verdi’s La Traviata, presented at the Egyptian Theatre in Boise by Opera
As it happened, I was working as an assistant at the public library in Cocoa, Florida, the summer of 1961 when, on the morning of July 2, Ernest Hemingway took up his prized shotgun in Ketchum and, as a buddy informed me, “blew his head off.” Continue reading
Growing up in a small town like Meridian in the 1950s was probably the best start anyone could have in life: the perfect atmosphere to create memories and friends that would last a lifetime. But that was what a small town was about. We knew everybody, every kid in school—and everybody’s parents knew ours. Continue reading
I had my first opportunity to see the Trailing of the Sheep Festival a few years ago when Andrea and Tom Rich, good friends of mine who have a long history of sheep ranching in Idaho, suggested I make the trip to Ketchum in October. Continue reading
On a bright afternoon in a warmer-than-normal March, from the driveway of John and Linda Wolfe’s house on the hillside above Pocatello, I see the sun glinting on the remains of mountain snowbanks which, in wetter years, would still cover the canyons.
Around the house, decorated flowerpots and painted metal sculptures gleam and spin. Inside, Linda and John greet me warmly, as do their dogs, Rosie, Abby, and Buster. My visit to these long-standing friends is not completely social. I have come to discuss a book illustration project with Linda, an artist I have worked with for more than thirty years. Continue reading
When I first heard the term “horsehair pottery,” I had a vision in my head of ceramic pieces wrapped in long strands of chestnut-colored horsehair, a bit like swathing pieces of thin rawhide around a vase. But the actual process turned out to be nothing like I expected, and the result like nothing I had ever seen.
I had heard about Jean Anglen of Cottonwood from a friend who said she made “beautiful horsehair pottery pieces.” I was skeptical. The idea of hair-wrapped ceramics didn’t really float my boat. But as a reporter for our local newspaper, I figured it didn’t really matter what I thought. Visiting with Jean might provide a nice feature story at some point, so I called and traveled the seventeen miles to the home she shares with husband Eldon. Continue reading
From the age of nine, I felt a compulsion to learn the secrets of how ancient flint and obsidian-flaked artifacts were fashioned by Stone Age craftsmen. This passion was sparked through the influence of my father, an avid outdoorsman who knew a bit about the ancient craft called flintknapping. He made and used small knives and arrow points of obsidian, or volcanic glass, to shoot and skin deer and smaller game. I learned from him how to make arrowheads, spearheads, and knives, sometimes of flint, but most often from obsidian. Later, I crafted more elaborate tools, such as large ceremonial blades and the rare fluted “paleo” points used by the first Americans for hunting big game, including the woolly mammoth and huge early bison. In college, I focused on stone tool technology while earning a bachelor’s degree in archaeology.
My obsidian and flint knives were put to a tough test in 2013, when my friend John Peri and Coeur d’Alene flintknapper and hunter Keith McMahan set up an experiment with a rancher to use the tools for butchering bison. My knives worked very well for skinning and butchering the animals, and after the experiment the implements were mailed to a laboratory for analysis and comparison to ancient artifacts. Microanalysis of striation on the blades of my replica knives showed wear similar to that of many knives excavated from Stone Age butchering sites. Continue reading
