Future uncertain for Pocatello man after business damaged in fire
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POCATELLO – The co-owner of a Pocatello art studio was running errands on the morning of February 23 when he received some news he didn’t believe at first.
“I went to go open the shop up … and go do my Home Depot run,” Josh Pohlman told EastIdahoNews.com. “I stopped by Hobby Lobby to look at some canvases and I got a call from the property owner saying that my shop was on fire. I was like ‘No, I was just there, nice try. It’s not April 1st yet.’ And she was like ‘Seriously. Get your butt down here.’ So, I made it across town in record time.”
Sixes Creative Studio at 206 North Main Street specializes in painting large-scale murals, branding and graphic design. It opened less than a year ago. Pohlman’s goal with the studio was not only to start a viable business but to give local kids an investment in the downtown area.
“It’s really hard because (Sixes shop) was a big, big, big labor of love and we all had a ton of equity and time spent down there,” said Pohlman. “It’s been almost a year to the day since we started remodeling the place and when it was done, we were like ‘This is excellent!’”
While firefighters have determined the fire’s point of origin, they haven’t yet uncovered the cause of the fire.
Though the business sustained significant damage, it isn’t a total loss. It’s a major setback for the dream that Pohlman has been cultivating for nearly fifteen years.
“I grew up skateboarding in a time when it wasn’t quite as glossy as it is now,” Pohlman said. “Skateboarding used to be kind of like a grimy pirate sport. Skateboarding was a good liaison into graffiti because we were going to get in trouble for skateboarding in the street anyways, so putting art up while we were out was just a second nature-type thing.”
“The vision for the shop was to just have a place where we could exist,” he added. “It’s always been this big idea of ‘If we could have our own shop where we could make the art we want to make and we could just hang out and play X-Box if that’s what we wanted or we could have a gallery show.’”
Through hard work and perseverance, that vision was blossoming into a reality and affecting the lives of Pocatello residents. That has been evident in the outpouring of love and support the shop owners have received.
“People we didn’t even know we’ve had a substantial impact on have reached out and offered time and help and anything that they could,” said Pohlman. “We’ve had a ton of people come down to give me a hug and talk to me about what’s going on and show their support. Tons of social media messages and calls. Just to know that we’ve had that kind of impact and there were people who were watching us and looking out for us (is) really beautiful.”
The fire leaves Pohlman and his partners unsure of what path to take forward. But he’s certain that he has to keep moving forward.
“We’re definitely looking at how to start over,” he said. “We started from nothing initially and it’s still been hard to quantify that we’ve put in so much work and effort and time and now it’s kind of all gone. We did a lot in a year. We really threw everything at the wall trying to get this going.”
“We were trying to cultivate this healthy creative community here in Pocatello and to just take this loss and walk away, that would be like walking out on your kid,” he added. “I care about everyone we’ve had in the shop and I do feel a sense of obligation to continue to do it. Just because there was a fire doesn’t mean that there’s not a need for (the shop) in Pocatello anymore.”
