Local artist opens ‘Vintage Print’ shop and studio in Garland neighborhood

SPOKANE, Wash. – Artist Chris Bovey has a style that is unmistakably his own and unique to Spokane.

Art outside its new storefront in the Garland District–Vintage + Neon Print– is cool, but what’s inside is even cooler.

“It’s like you walk in and everything you grew up with is in one store,” Kelly Rounds said.

“There’s a lot of history here,” Bovey said. “There are landmarks and neon lights.”

Bovey’s work can be seen in local cafes, city living rooms, on T-shirts and now in the vintage brick and mortar print, an idea six years in the making.

“I told my mom I should buy every poster and put it in my room because they’re just cool,” Kelsey Swenland said.

Bovey says the Vintage Print project began amid what he perceived to be Spokane’s identity crisis as a city.

“Thinking that we’re not as cool as Seattle or Portland or something like that, and I was like, ‘we’ve got a lot of cool things here to celebrate, a lot of cool stories to celebrate,'” he said. .

Landmarks, local bars and restaurants, colleges, all given the ‘Bovey treatment’: timelessly immortalized, speaking to generations of spokanites.

“You see people standing in front of the impression wall, and they’re overwhelmed with emotions and memories of different places that have touched them,” Bovey said.

Perhaps the coolest part?

“When you’re out there making art, and people can see that process being created, and then it goes straight to the wall. It’s pretty amazing,” Bovey said. “People just want to come over when I’m working, shake my hand and say hello. I’m just a regular guy, you know? It’s really cool to interact with people like that.

What about the free Donkey Kong arcade game, print-your-own stations and of course the crowd-favorite chewing gum machine?

“I want families to be able to come back to the Garland District and go see a movie, go to the Milk Bottle for a milkshake, and come to Vintage Print and be able to have fun instead of a typical retail experience,” said Bovey said. .

Another way to give back to the community that has done so much for him.

“Spokane has arrived, man. It was really cool,” Bovey said.

Bovey will host events at Vintage Print, such as “Print and Pint” nights – where attendees can learn to screen print and enjoy a cold beer.

For more information on Vintage Print and to follow their announcements, visit their Facebook page by clicking on here.

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