cobaltika

bohot folk art houses, st. joseph missouri
click to be amazed!

what a great weekend! traci had birthday events planned for herself the entire weekend. ha! i had to opt out of the dancing part, because even though i think i still like to dance, i don’t like to go to bars and clubs at all, especially when the action doesn’t start until about the time i like to go to my duvet and my book, especially when i wake up at 5am and can’t go back to sleep.

we went on a photo field trip on saturday to st. joseph missouri. we had a list of things we wanted to see. i don’t know what happened to the time, but we ended up spending the whole afternoon in a 2-block area that was just jam-packed with wondrous old things to capture - these folk art houses are what brought us there, and they were definitely wonderful - in fact, these are the first images i have made in a long time that i was not inclined to glamorize at all - they are pretty much straight out of the camera. gasp! i’m not kidding! but there was so much more. we did not even make a DENT. i want to spend at least a whole weekend there! but man, i will bring my own food, because it seems like there is only fast food there? anyway, it was dark before we could go to the old downtown or to the psychiatric museum (housed in the old asylum), so a return is definitely in order.

on sunday, there was a 4-girl art/wine/snack party at traci’s studio after a gut-stuffing outing to the oriental buffet. more great fun!

on monday, i did not go out of the house. and it snowed!

and in a few days, i will be able to say what else i did, too! (shhhh)
busy times!

historical info:
Bobby G. Bohot, a mason by trade, purchased this house in 1969 and decorated the exterior with many home-made masonry appliques and found objects, thus bringing modern recognition of this early Saint Joseph residence as one of two “folk art” houses in Saint Joseph. Both are located in the 600 block of South lothStreet and both were owned and embellished by Mr. Bohot. He operated a junk shop out of the Alois Herbert Double House. He took the liberty of inscribing his name “BOHOT on a masonry block and installed it on the front of the building, thus giving it the modern name of the “Bohot Folk Art House.” Mr. Bohot also left several examples of his masonry work on the building, including different tooling joints. He taught both of his sons, Bob and Randy, the masonry trade and they practiced on these houses. Most of his appliques were made by melting down lead weights from car tires and then creating molds from which he would do plaster castings. Mr. Bohot had said that his designs told a story and every element played a role. Unfortunately, he died before revealing the stories. Because of Mr. Bohot’s obsessiveness with the decor and storytelling of his embellishments, he should be considered an “outsider artist” -one who created art in its most raw and uninhibited form and was seen to exist outside the established culture and society. It is unclear if Bobby G. Bohot considered himself an artist; however, his works are not only well-known locally, but caught national attention as well. Mr. Bohot and his family lived in the neighboring house at 610 South loth, which was documented by HABS in 1986 and called “Architect’s Folly.”

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