Chris Bovey ‘97

Artist

Inducted 2022

After graduating from North Central in 1997, Chris worked for a decade as the art director for the Inlander. Then he decided to try something new. He assembled his own screen-printing setup, honed his art skills, and afterhours made prints of well-known local landmarks, ranging from the Monroe Street Bridge to the Bigfoot Pub and Eatery.

The art change his life and career path. He quit his full-time job and embarked on a career as an independent artist. Eventually, sales of his prints grew from a few to hundreds. Soon Chris’ art was available on T-shirts and coffee mugs. He became known for his Vintage Spokane Calendars, which sold out every year. Then his art Spokane-related prints were collected in a book titled “Vintage Spokane – Art of Chris Bovey.” The Spokesman-Review’s Northwest

Passages Book Club celebrated his book with a gathering at the Montvale Event Center in November 2019. The book remains a visual inventory of Spokane’s identify, including its neighborhoods, businesses, and landmarks.

The way Chris Bovey captured the Lilac City continued to grow. His prints decorated homes and were splashed across the walls of local businesses. Subjects included Frank’s Diner, the East Sprague Drive-in Theater, the Garland Theater, Ming Wah Restaurant, and Playfair Race Course — all places with which Chris had a personal connection. He was always picking new Spokane landmarks to portray in his unique way.

The theme for his 2021 calendar was Spokane Parks. It took him eight months to visit parks all around Spokane and create prints of 12 parks for the calendar. Riverfront Park, south of North Central, and Corbin Park to the north, were two of them. His work is enshrined at North Central High School in the mural he created in the school’s commons area.