WHAT WE DO

“I've been creating art my entire life,” wrote Alexa in her artist’s statement. “As a little girl, I spent hours coloring with crayons. I sewed stuffed animals from scraps of fabric. I was fascinated with pattern, texture and color. As an adult, I combined my passion for theater and visual art into work as a puppeteer. I taught art for more than two decades. And then I began to paint, first in watercolor, then in acrylic, chalk and colored pencil. For me, art is everywhere.” 

A native of New York City, Alexa Howell graduated cum laude with a major in French at UCLA. Graduate work included a master’s in art from Boise State University and an arts diploma from the Swiss University of Lausanne. In a chance encounter in Manhattan, she met Ken Howell in 1971, and soon the couple was married. They lived a comfortable life in Athens during their first year of marriage while Ken worked a corporate job with Pfizer. Soon, Ken’s interest in cattle ranching and disinterest in corporate life led them to a family friend’s ranch in Nampa, Idaho. Ken worked as the “hired” man, and Alexa made a home for them in the ranch’s 10’X60’ trailer. After a short stint at ranching, Alexa moved with Ken to the City of Trees. He assured her that he would find something to do. 

While Ken worked real estate, Alexa free-lanced in Boise and wrote a column for the Idaho Statesman . She started a puppet theatre, ran offices, managed the Boise Philharmonic, raised three children, taught art, exhibited in galleries, opened her own, and inspired the next generation of artists, devoutly their mentor and friend. In 1979, at Boise State, she was awarded the prestigious Whittenberger Fellowship. Honored by the Idaho Commission on the Arts in 1990, she was designated one of the state’s top “living artists.”