An exhibit that feels like home

Published 1:30 am Thursday, February 26, 2026

Through the first week of March, Homer Council on the Arts hosts its Members Show, featuring work by 30 artists showcasing acrylic painting, alcohol inks, ceramics, cold wax and oil, cotton sculpture, crochet, drawing, gouache, mosaic, oil painting, papercraft, photography, quilting, watercolor painting and woodworking.

“We have a lovely mix of artists, including some who have been active members for many years, some emerging artists and some brand-new faces,” said Jenna Gerrety, HCOA’s marketing director. “It’s clear that Alaskan artists love Alaska. Populating the gallery are works that feature our natural surroundings here in Homer, local landmarks and familiar landscapes, alongside pieces created from found materials like pushki seeds and driftwood.”

A Homer resident for the past five years, Rebecca King has two pieces in the exhibit — a block print feather titled “Fallen” that was inspired after finding an eagle feather during a river walk, and a bentwood box.

Made of white spruce, handmade birch nails and spruce and willow roots, her oval-shaped wooden box is approximately 12 inches long, 7 inches wide and 5 inches high. The body of the box is a light-colored white spruce with spruce and willow root weaving on the front and small birch nails attaching the box to the base. The lid is white spruce, and the wooden handle is attached with a root weaving.

This piece was created while King participated in a bentwood box class at the Folk School Fairbanks taught by master woodworker and craftsman John Manthei.

“Bentwood boxes are beautiful, functional, made of all renewable and natural materials, and making one requires learning and practicing countless skills,” King said. “Creating this in a community setting also brought the joy of creating with others and learning from them.

“We created the boxes over several days, with the steps included steaming and bending a thin strip of white spruce, cutting out and carving the bottoms and tops using power and hand tools, splitting and carving birch nails to attach the bent to the bottom, designing weaving patterns and stitching the bent wood as well as the handle using spruce and willow root.”

For the artist, the box speaks to teaching, learning, community, mentorship and shared experiences.

“It shows that with good instruction, collaboration and patience, you can learn and create so many things,” she said. “The local materials inspire a connection to the natural world and a calmness and lifting. I hope viewers notice that the box is entirely made from trees. When the life of this box is over, it will serve to heat a home or generate new soil, leaving nothing but a memory behind.”

Homer quilter Jane Regan’s quilt, “Containing Chaos,” is a political statement piece, a visual reflection of her view of the current state of politics in the United States. Her quilt includes 20 individual blocks created using leftover fabric and, thereby, no repeating patterns. Each block is an asymmetrical, angled rectangle that is filled with little black dots and surrounded by different shades of taupe.

“Most quilts have blocks that are repeated and a familiar pattern would be one that repeats itself, and so the lack of familiar pattern is supposed to make people a little bit uncomfortable,” Regan said.

The shades of taupe represent the diversity of the population of the U.S., while the dots represent the people.

“The rectangles are the different areas in which Trump has made a real mess, a big mess in many cases and the dots around his actions are supposed to be containing him, surrounding him and, hopefully, neutralizing him,” she said.

A lifelong quilter who inherited her passion for the craft from her mother and her grandmother, Regan is a member of the Kachemak Bay Quilters quilting group. Her quilts can be found locally in the entryway of Haven House and at Kachemak Bay Family Planning’s clinic and administrative office.

Kenai community member Theresa Ritter is a board member and recent exhibitor at the Kenai Art Center and Kenai Chamber and Visitor Center. Her acrylic paintings on display in the HCOA exhibit were inspired by her travels around Alaska. Raised watching her grandparents paint in oils and watercolor, she has been a painter for most of her life, but only more seriously for the past 10 years. Her favorite season to paint is the winter months when she sorts through photographs she shot during her explorations, chooses which to paint and then starts by sketching on her canvas, creating underpainting and then working in layers.

Her piece, “Russian River Springtime,” was painted from a photo she took from the overlook on a hike to the Russian River falls.

“With this particular piece, I wanted to convey the crispness of an early spring day — the sunny, clear kind that still has a little bite to the air,” she said. “The trees were just starting to wake up after shaking off their snow and the falls sang below us.”

Her other piece on display is “Denali Dreams,” inspired during a trip to Denali National Park where she was fortunate enough to see the mountain.

Creatively, Ritter enjoys the process of watching her paintings come to life.

“I can count on any of my paintings going through several stages where I love it, then hate it in the messy middle and then finally, finally, it’s done and I can step back and go wow, I did that! How did I do that? I surprise myself!” she said.

Tony Perelli is a local wood turner showing two pieces in the exhibit, including a bowl and a small vessel. The vessel is about 2.5 inches in diameter — nearly spherical, completely hollow, very light and has a small foot and small opening at the top.

“The wood species is unknown, but it’s very hard and tight grained with some nice variations of color and was sent to me by a friend in Missouri, and that makes it extra fun,” he said. “When thinking about vessels like this there are a few things that pull me in — as a craftsman there is a real challenge in the making, skills eye and hand, but then more broadly, I think vessels are a compelling idea as they can echo the body in some ways. They are quiet and can also capture your attention at the same time.”

Perelli shared that at the same time that he is turning wood, he is chasing a feeling that he wants to pass on to the user or viewer.

“Work like this tickles my sense of centeredness, connectedness and a reverence for nature and I love the idea of passing that along to others,” he said. “I want these pieces to excite people about wood and nature, to make people feel a zap of connection to nature and a zap of connection to humanity as I think art and craft can do. The best of this kind of vessel can also give you a nudge towards stillness, both internal and external.”

Perelli has been working with wood for many years, learning from mentors and teachers as he hones his creativity. In addition to sharing his passion with others across the state through classes and workshops, he also shows his work locally at Bunnell Street Arts Center and the Pratt Museum.

Community members can see work by these and all of the participating artists through Tuesday, March 3.

“If visitors take anything away from the show, I hope it is that we are so lucky to be surrounded by beauty, both in our natural landscape and the art created by the wonderful people in it,” Gerrety said. “This exhibit feels like home.”

To learn more about the benefits of HCOA membership, including upcoming Member Shows, visit homerart.org or stop by the gallery Monday to Saturday from 1-5 p.m.