CO-FOUNDER & CURATOR

Katherine is a fine artist & entrepreneur with an MFA from The Art Institute of Chicago. She spent over a decade living in the wild and vibrant art community of Marfa, Texas and has many years of experience working and volunteering in the arts, education and politics. She is thrilled to be welcoming both young and established contemporary artists into The Common Well exhibition program and looks forward to shepherding experimental and challenging projects to the forefront. Through The Common Well community, Katherine is dedicated to connecting artists, creatives and collectors both near and far. Katherine is married to Tom Michael, General Manager at Boise State Public Radio, and they have two children at Boise High School. Katherine currently has new work in an exhibition at Sun Valley Museum of Art.

CO-FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Following a 30 year career in Commercial and Residential Design and Construction, Amber founded Fort Builder with her son, Grayson Lawless. They built community, and supported opportunities for entrepreneurs in their beautiful cowork and event spaces. When Amber met Katherine in 2022, they joined forces and Fort Builder evolved into The Common Well.. Amber has worked in illustration, printmaking, letterpress, metalsmithing and welding. She rejects the “starving artist” notion, and loves helping artists figure out how to earn a living with their art. She is currently immersed in tile making and pottery in the ceramics studio, which she manages at The Common Well. In her spare time, Amber and her husband, Michael, love chasing their adult children and grandkids.

CREATIVE STRATEGY & COMMERCE

Katie is a native Oregonian and a semi-recent Boise transplant — by way of Nashville, TN. She spends much of her time and brain space working with creatives as a brand strategist, helping passionate people tell their stories to the world. After a long career at Lonely Planet as Director of Brand and a stint in big tech at Google, she now leads strategy at GoNoodle — where she’s on a mission to ensure that vibrant movement and mindfulness content remains freely accessible to teachers and children in schools across the country. In her spare time, when she’s not wrangling her small humans, she’s helping her farmer husband, Chris, on their microgreens farm at The Common Well. Katie is also taking on the development of Big Moon Barter, a retail store/gift shop, opening at The Common Well in 2024.

CHIEF DESIGNER & FABRICATOR

Grayson Lawless is an artist, carpenter, and licensed general contractor from Idaho. He completed the renovation at The Common Well and crafted the fixtures and furniture. Grayson’s skills range from design and branding to fabrication and production. As a multi-dimensional artist, he works in wood, metal, clay, and leather, and also runs the screen-printing studio at The Common Well. Grayson and his partner Rielly are drawing up plans to open Well.Fed., a commercial kitchen at The Common Well. Outside The Common Well, a majority of his work consists of unique remodels and custom woodwork.

FOUNDING MEMBER

Eric Becker is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and photographer based in Idaho. Over the last 16 years, Eric's work has been seen in theaters, online, on TV, and in galleries. Eric's feature length documentary, Return to Mount Kennedy (2019) is distributed by 1091 Media in association with REI Co-Op. His company, We Are Shouting LLC has produced content for fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations both domestically and internationally. As a founding member of The Common Well, he is working to create a third place for artists and makers that will support their creative output while building the local art scene. He splits his time between his home in Boise and his cabin deep in the woods of the central Idaho mountains.