Twenty summers ago as 11 million gallons of Exxon Valdez crude fouled Alaska beaches and bays, a band of Homer-based volunteers took it on themselves to clean a lower Kenai Peninsula beach Exxon had written off. With a homebuilt rock scrubber built by Billy Day, and with volunteers from around the world working into late fall of 1989, rock by rock they cleaned up Mars Cove in the western arm of Port Dick.
"It was awesome," said Homer photographer Linda Smogor, who worked three stints at Mars Cove. "It was people taking it into their own hands, saying, 'Hey, we're going to clean this beach in an environmentally more friendly way than Exxon.'"
"Remember Mars" is one of eight exhibits at local art galleries opening Friday. July's exhibits include shows in a wide variety of media and styles, from Deb Lowney's wood sculptures at Ptarmigan Arts to Deland Anderson's Australian Aboriginal dot-technique paintings at Bunnell Street Arts Center.
Smogor put together her show after magazine editors rejected a proposal for a photo essay.
"Editors were saying, 'We're oil spilled out.' There were so many stories on the spill," she said.
Levine, who helped run Mars Cove with Day, showed Smogor his journal, and she had the idea of including his text -- "Two different voices from one place," she said.
"Remember Mars" opened in July 1990 at the Visual Arts Center, Anchorage, and showed that September at the Great Company Gallery, Bunnell Street Arts Center's predecessor at the Old Inlet Trading Post.
It also was exhibited in Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the hallway of the U.S. Federal Courthouse, Anchorage.
Smogor said she thinks of her show as a historical document as well as photojournalism.
"I was thinking to remember what went on there as far as the environmental impact, but the power of Mars, the collective vision of volunteers, of people taking the problem into their own hands and coming up with creative solutions," she said.
"It definitely worked," Smogor added. "The beach was pretty much restored."
"Remember Mars" is part of the Pratt's 20-year retrospective on the oil spill and is on exhibit through Aug. 16.
Michael Armstrong can be reached at michaelarmstrong.@homernews.com.
Art Shop Gallery
207 W. Pioneer Ave.
Collages by Guitta Corey
5-7:30 p.m., First Friday Reception
Noon-5 p.m., Saturday
Anchorage artist Guitta Cory uses oriental papers to create collages. Her show includes several originals of the Homer area and giclee prints on archival watercolor paper.
Bunnell Street Arts Center
106 W. Bunnell Ave.
Paintings by Deland Anderson
Beaded Bags by Kate Boyan
5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception
6 p.m., Artists' Talk
Deland Anderson's signature style is inspired by the Australian Aboriginal dot technique which he first encountered while working on a cattle station in the Australian Outback in 1980.
"The world is limned by a circling horizon, and you (or someone, or something) are in the center," Anderson writes in his artist's statement. "Consider that one dot could be a picture of that world. Another dot next to that dot forms a pattern; more dots, more pattern. Eventually the world is rendered as colored pattern. And so it goes. The patterns emerge, the dots multiply, the colors vibrate with each other, and it all comes alive in a way."
In this series of beaded bags, Kate Boyan features the image of the raven. "Deciding to use the dark, clever raven as the main character in my pieces allows me to go to many different places," she writes. "Inspiration can be in the everyday: watching raven flight over the inlet at moonset or just a trip to the dump where raven antics abound."
Fireweed Gallery
475 E. Pioneer Ave.
"New Work in Fused Glass," glass art by Laura Mendola
5-8 p.m., First Friday Reception
Laura Mendola creates glass sculptures from handmade molds and pellets of glass fired at extreme temperatures. Glass rods, powers and metals create color and texture.
Hotel Bravo
158 W. Pioneer Ave., Suite D
"Minstrels of Propaganda," photography by Hannah Baechler and self-portraits by local musicians
7-11 p.m., First Friday Reception
Homer artist Hannah Baechler displays photographs of local musicians, with some musicians also showing self-portraits. CTTC plays for Friday's opening reception. July is dedicated to music, with live performances throughout the month.
Picture Alaska
448 E. Pioneer Ave.
"Chinese Brush Painting: Flowers," by Sharlene JP Cline
5-7:30 p.m., First Friday Reception
Sharlene JP Cline studied Chinese brush painting in Taiwan under internationally renowned flower and bird master Yang O-Shi for three years, and has shown her paintings and mixed media works locally and nationally. "After a five year baby/toddler sabbatical, I returned to Chinese painting for its gift of stillness," Cline writes in her artist's statement. "Chinese painting demands a meditative mind and a practiced skilled hand. I can only paint Chinese style when I'm centered and calm. In a busy working mother's life finding, or rather creating, time to paint is an achievement in itself -- never mind to also sit down with a "still heart." This calmness is needed to portray the flower and its essence to rice paper. This process is what lures me back again and again to Chinese painting. To me the finished painting is only a byproduct of this process."
Pier One Theatre
Homer Spit
"Invisible Ink," readings by local writers
8:15 p.m., First Friday
8:15 p.m. Saturday
Local writers read spoken word pieces in an evening coordinated by Jan Needham. Admission is $10 at the door. Call 235-7333.
Pratt Museum
3779 Bartlett Street
"Remember Mars," photographs by Linda Smogor and text by Benn Levine
5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
6 p.m., Artists' Talk
During the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, a band of volunteers based out of Homer waged an unofficial clean-up of a heavily oiled beach near Port Dick on the outer coast of the Kenai Peninsula. Photographer Linda Smogor and writer Benn Levine documented their work at Mars Cove through images and journal entries.
Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery
471 E. Pioneer Ave.
"Portals," sculptures by Deb Lowney with photographs by Aleda Yourdon
5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception
Homer artist Deb Lowney returned to art about six years ago after retiring as a school teacher and has become known for her wood sculptures. "I have been intrigued by wood with natural holes or openings for several years," she writes in her artist's statement. "These pieces of wood tempt you to peek, to investigate, to admire them, or to use the opening as a frame for objects in the distance. This show, 'Portals,' was inspired by this wood that I have collected over the years. Nature has done a beautiful job of sculpting these pieces of wood. I took the liberty to enhance nature's work by making holes bigger and bolder, and in some cases adding more holes to a piece. Shape, line and texture were all characteristics that defined the final piece as I struggled with how much I wanted to control the outcome of this work."
Ring of Fire Meadery
178 E. Bunnell Ave.
"Tulips," acrylic paintings by Casey Wise
5-7:30 p.m., First Friday Reception
Casey Wise's June exhibit continues, with new paintings added.
Friday at 5 p.m., Smogor's exhibit of photographs she took that summer, "Remember Mars," opens with a reception at the Pratt Museum. Anchorage writer Benn Levine's journal entries from that summer complement Smogor's black-and-white photographs.
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Story last updated at
8:21 PM on
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
First Friday Envents
BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
STAFF WRITER
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