Shoppers looking for unusual gifts can take advantage of multi-artists shows at galleries — or even the annual Nutcracker Faire on Saturday and Sunday at the Homer High School.
The Art Shop’s First Friday reception runs all day from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. for a customer appreciation day. Refreshments are served, and customers can enter a door prize drawing for free framing. Soldotna potter Libby Berezin’s “Glaze and Glass,” which opened last month, remains on exhibit.
The Art Shop also has new pieces by Barbara Lavalee and from Moose Run Metalsmiths.
Bunnell Street Gallery
“Out of the (jewelry) box,” a show curated by local jeweler Rika Mouw, features work by 35 Alaska and Homer artists who don’t usually do jewelry. An artists’ reception is 5:30-7:30 p.m., with a talk by Mouw at 7 p.m.
“I’ve asked them to step outside their box,” Mouw said of the artists.
“My premise is that jewelry can evoke so much conversation. It can be drama, it can be social statement, it can be anything.”
Some of the pieces aren’t even wearable, and are jewelry in that they evoke the idea of jewelry, such as Julie Decker’s “24 Carrots,” a painting of 24 carrots.
Others are ephemeral, like a necklace by Lynn Marie Naden frozen in a block of ice.
“Some are quite wearable, but made of materials you’d never guess, like spiral book binders,” Mouw said.
Fireweed Gallery
“Fusion,” another multi-artist show, features collaborations between visual and literary artists. A reception is 5-7 p.m.
The works are inspired by literature, interpretations of literature or incorporate literary elements. It’s art based on a literary feeling, said gallery owner Irene Randolph.
Homer Council on the Arts
There is no First Friday opening this week at the arts council as it prepares for the annual Nutcracker Faire at Homer High School on Saturday and Sunday. HCOA’s monthly show opens next Friday, Dec. 8.
Picture Alaska art gallery
This month’s show is new oil paintings by James Buncak, with an artist’s reception from 5-7 p.m.
Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery
The “Festive Arts” show continues through Jan. 3, with art, crafts and gift items by local artists, including Ginny Benson, Rita Turner, Tanya Norvell, Karen Roush, Jean Steele, Cheryl Reynolds, Mossy Kilcher, Deb Lowney, Barbara Cordy, Cindy Nelson, Kathi Drew, Marie Alexson, Caryl Christy, Athena Edens and Linda Skelton. Susan Houlihan of Alpenglow Skin Care and Elizabeth Neumann of Swamp Sister Lotions also sell their specialty items. A reception is from 5-7 p.m. with homemade treats. Massage artists from Homer Inn and Spa offer free 5-minute chair massages.
Ring of Fire Meadery
“Abstruse,” new work by photographer Karen Roush and painter Peg Belcastro, opens with a reception from 5-7 p.m. Their work came out of “Life, Paint and Passion,” a three-day intensive workshop Roush and Belcastro took with Stewart Cubley. Roush described the workshop as “letting yourself go where you’re not worried about the end result, but apply yourself to the process.”
“It opened my eyes up to a freedom (that) I didn’t need to be so tight,” Roush said. “I decided to push the limits and do some abstract work with photography.”
Art Shop Gallery
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