Art this month also looks ahead, to a potentially bleaker future as the world's climate changes. As it did with previous exhibits on plankton and bugs, the Pratt Museum invited scientists and artists to learn from each other. This year, the Pratt held a series of lectures and talks on climate change, providing information and inspiration to artists to explore the theme. "What does change mean to our own lives? What role do each of us play?" the exhibit, "Concerning Climate Change," asks.
Sheary Clough Suiters First Bloom is one of the paintings shown at Picture Alaska Gallerys First Friday exhibit, Spring into Summer.
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Some works, like Deland Anderson's "Super Typhoon Ioke," a view from space of a dramatic typhoon, look at the issue from a global perspective, while others, like Annette Bellamy's "Acid Ocean," examine the effect of ocean acidification on small creatures like bivalves. Some offer hope and encouragement, like Michael Murray's series of 50 small cards, "Fifty Ways to Save Our Mother." Others offer simple advice, such as Torie Rhyan's painting of a polar bear cub clinging to its mother's back, titled "Hold On."
More hope comes from student art on display at the Homer Public Library, in local businesses and in two Jubilee exhibits opening this Friday. At the Homer Council on the Arts, the Jubilee Student Art show invited student artists of all ages from preschoolers to college students to submit art. Many of the pieces look at the idea of sustainability and how using local resources can minimize our carbon footprints. That art walks the talk, too, by using local or recycled materials, as in a large piece created by Homer Youth for Environmental Action.
Also at the Pratt and opening Friday is "Jubilee 2008: Celebrating Children's Art." In that show, teachers from local elementary schools were asked to choose and submit from one to 10 (depending on school size) student works.
Jubilee celebrates youth art, with the Jubilee Youth Variety Show coming up April 25. It all ties in with this month's emphasis on arts education, said HCOA director Hope Finkelstein.
"We're just really thinking about the whole month of April as a way to promote not only youth art, but arts education in general," she said.
Here's a wrap up of this Friday's openings, including two literary arts events:
Bunnell Street Gallery
"Objects of Curiosity," by Brenda Roper
First Friday opening reception, 6-8 p.m.; artist's talk, 6 p.m. Through April 30.
Brenda Roper's exhibit came out of a residency in October 2005 at the Vermont Studio Center. Previously working in birch bark which caused her fingers to crack she turned to her version of stucco.
"There is a story here, but not one I wish to dictate," she writes in her artist's statement. "Is it about borders, or social boundaries, or relationships, or class? Are both sides asking the same questions, seeking the same dream?"
Fireweed Gallery
East Pioneer Avenue
"Serendipity," acrylic paintings by Jerilyn Krause
"New Beginnings, the Past is Over, I'm Free," watercolor florals by Madeline West
5-7 p.m., First Friday reception. Through April 29.
Longtime Alaskans Jerilyn Krause and Madeline West present work that comes out of their experience in the north. Krause, a 30-year resident, recently retired and has taken up the brush again to pursue a love of art going back to childhood.
"Painting has increased my awe and appreciation of creation, Mother Nature and its intricacies," she writes in her artist's statement.
West, an Alaskan since 1959 now living in Homer, has worked as a surveyor and in civil engineering and construction, a career that has taken her all over the state. Two of her paintings are in the permanent collection of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She also spends part of the year in rural Costa Rica.
"My current work is in watercolor, a medium where I can get a far range of colors and hues," she writes. '"I like loose wet look with inherent drips and splashes."
Homer Council on the Arts
Jubilee Student Art Exhibition
West Pioneer Avenue
5-7 p.m., First Friday reception
Jubilee features works by any student artist.
"The gallery's going to be packed with student art from all ages," said HCOA director Hope Finkelstein. "The student art exhibitions have been bringing together both teachers and parents thinking about and supporting creative activities for their kids."
Works include figures created using local or recycled materials in an artist-in-the-school residency with Lynn Naden at West Homer Elementary School.
Picture Alaska
"Spring into Summer," by various artists
East Pioneer Avenue
5-7:30 p.m., First Friday reception.
Picture Alaska features a multi-media, multi-artist show, with work in watercolors, oils, acrylics and encaustics by artists from Homer, Anchorage and elsewhere in Alaska. Artists include Thor Brandt-Erichsen, James Buncak, Paula Dickey, Judy Winn, Kathy Smith, Donna Martin, Don Kolstad, Sheary Clough Suiter, Elizabeth Petersen and Sylva Timinskis.
Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery
"Irrepressible," installation by Asia Freeman
East Pioneer Avenue
5-7 p.m., First Friday reception. Through April 17.
Bunnell Street Gallery director Asia Freeman walks up the hill this week to present her installation, "Irrepressible."
"'Irrepressible' is spring: rebirth, regeneration, emergence from winter and the recycling of old baggage and ideas, objects and memories into new possibilities," Freeman writes in her artist's statement. "If you could take your baggage and compost it or plant it in the ground, what would happen? What would you like to cultivate?"
Pratt Museum
"Concerning Climate Change" and "Jubilee 2008," by multiple artists
Bartlett Street
5-7 p.m., First Friday reception. Through June 1.
Other First Friday arts events:
Literary readings
Photo by Michael Armstrong
This detail from Michael Murray's "Fifty Ways to Save Our Mother" is one of the pieces in the Pratt Museum's "Concerning Climate Change" exhibit.
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7:30 p.m., Kachemak Bay Campus, East Campus Commons
Local writers Nancy Lord and Tom Kizzia and Anchorage writer and poet Michael Burwell read works in celebration of Alaska Quarterly Review's 25th anniversary.
"Kyrgyzstan to Kathmandu," multimedia show by Sage Cohen
7:30 p.m., Homer High School library
Donation requested.
Bicyclist and adventurer Sage Cohen presents a slide show with music about her six-month adventure through central Asia with cycling partner Chris Rock.
"The pictures are gorgeous, the trip was outrageous. The show is really educational and entertaining at the same time," Cohen said.
Editor's Note: Reporter Michael Armstrong has a piece in the Pratt Museum's climate change exhibit.
