Mural painter finds passion in Idaho landscapes

Boise is a painted city.

Everywhere-from the Record Exchange building to Bandanna Running & Walking Store’s huge, shoe-wearing dinosaur insignia-there are murals that have become a well-loved aspect of Boise’s character.

Few people realize that many of these works come from the same root.

Painter Fred Choate began his adult life in an unlikely place.

Initially carrying a degree in sociology, he worked in the construction industry for many years before happening upon painting.

“About ‘82 or ‘83, I made the decision to get out of construction and start doing art full-time,” Choate said.

“I picked up the book ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ [by Betty Edwards]. I made the commitment to draw one hour a day,” he said.

“I’d always been real artistic, I’d always been real interested in art, but I’d always been too afraid to really do it.”

In 1984, Choate visited an architect friend and began work on what would become the Record Exchange mural.

“He had a client [who owned the Hitchcock building] and wanted to do something with it … He gave me a picture of the building and asked what I would do with it … that was the first large mural,” Choate said.

Choate’s credits include murals in Caf

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