A different kind of CSA

Community Supported Art boxes feature work by six local artists, supporting the artists and introducing them to Homer’s art community

With a goal of supporting local artists and connecting them to Homer’s art community, Bunnell Street Arts Center’s sixth annual Community Supported Art (CSA) boxes feature original artwork by local artists Abigail Kokai, Adele Person, Marie Herdegen, Sharlene Cline, Valisa Higman and Winter Marshall-Allen.

Modeled after the longtime community supported agriculture program that has become a popular way for people to buy seasonal food directly from local farms, Bunnell’s board of directors created Community Supported Arts in 2018 and the program has now been replicated across North America, according to Bunnell’s website. Every year, artists apply for the opportunity to participate and are chosen by a jury of artist peers based on the quality, contrast and compatibility of the idea submitted. Selected artists then create 30 small original works of art, one for each of the 10- by 10-inch CSA boxes. The boxes debut and are available to community members beginning in June.

According to Bunnell’s website, the Community Supported Art program benefits the artists by providing gallery support, connecting them with other artists and the local art community, as well as paying them upfront for their work. Members who purchase the CSA boxes receive six original works of art from local artists, supporting these artists in their careers, along with the local art community.

Abigail Kokai

A Homer resident for eight years, Abigail Kokai works in a variety of mediums, has exhibited across Alaska and has been a recipient of a Rasmuson Individual Artist award. Inspired by her seasonal work with fishing charters, she created “Stadium Rockfish” tea towels for the CSA box.

“I’ve seen lots of people posing with fish and the occasional fish kiss. … As a play on words, I imagined a Gene Simmons-esque KISS rockfish,” she shared. “And here we are.”

A nod to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s basic rockfish identification guide, Kokai’s towels feature species of rockfish depicted as “Rockstars” — David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Jimmie Hendrix, Joan Jett, Janis Joplin, Kiss, and Tina Turner, to name just a few.

Adele Person

A Homer resident for more than 20 years and Bunnell employee, Adele Person created fish-skin wallets for the CSA boxes, inspired after years working at the Saltry Restaurant in Halibut Cove and wanting to find a way to use the salmon skin left over after making gallons of pickled salmon.

“Fish skin is an incredible material, as are so many things from our natural world,” she shared. “What I want most is to live in a world that does not take what it doesn’t need, that believes things also have a soul, that nothing is waste, and that we can live in economies and societies that are fundamentally based on reciprocity and giving.”

Person learned to make the wallets by watching Indigenous teachers on YouTube videos, and continues to learn how to work with fish skin as an art medium.

Marie Herdegen

Marie Herdegen is a self-taught potter who has called Homer home for more than 30 years. For the CSA boxes, she created ceramic blueberry teacups.

“I have a great passion for harvesting blueberries and have developed a blueberry design for my pottery I call “Berryware,” she shared. “It speaks to our local environment and the wild harvesting lifestyle that so many of us participate in annually.”

Herdegen shared that participating in the CSA has encouraged her to reconnect with the art community.

“I have spent over 30 years working alone in my studio as a production potter, recently relocated to town, and am getting my business put back together,” she said. “Through this program, I’m reminded of the importance of being part of a creative community.”

Sharlene Cline

Sharlene Cline has lived in Homer since 1995 and is well known for exhibiting and teaching brushwork painting. Her contribution to the boxes is a fireweed painting.

“It is audacious to try to represent the magnitude of Alaska, but I try to capture the spirit and essence through its birds, flowers and landscapes with simple powerful spontaneous brush strokes,” she shared. “As plum blossom is the iconic flower of traditional Chinese painting, fireweed is the iconic Homer wildflower gracing our hills. This hardy flower grows on cleared and burned land, a symbol of rebirth and hope.”

Valisa Higman

Seldovia resident Valisa Higman has been working with cut-paper since she was a child. Today her work is inspired by her natural surroundings and her community and sold around Alaska. For years, she had been dreaming of compiling several of her pieces into a coloring book and the CSA program provided the opportunity to do so. Her “Alaska Coloring Book” is debuted in these art boxes.

“I chose images that celebrate Kachemak Bay and its tides, forests, mountains and gardens,” she said. “My hope is that these pages will give others the same pleasure I get from capturing the many vivid colors of Kachemak Bay.”

Winter Marshall-Allen

A Homer resident for seven years and an intensive needs teacher at Homer High School, Winter Marshall-Allen grew up learning beadwork from her grandmothers and today creates jewelry, primarily earrings, from natural mediums like shells, seed beads and recycled glass.

“My beadwork is a reflection of skills I have learned from various matriarchs in my life,” she shared. “Being a part of the CSA provides an opportunity to share my skills that reflect a different side of who I am outside of the classroom.”

Sales from her beadwork subsidize the educational tutoring services she provides as well as her local volunteer advocacy work.

Bunnell’s CSA program is supported by sales and membership donations. The boxes will be available beginning June 1 in-person at Bunnell, online at BunnellArts.org, or by phone, 907-235-2662 and are $300 per box. On Friday, June 2, Bunnell Street Arts Center will host an opening reception for the CSA boxes in conjunction with the June solo exhibit artist, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with artist’s sharing about their work at 6 p.m.

Photos provided by Bunnell
Fish-skin wallets by Homer’s Adele Person is included in Bunnell’s CSA boxes this year.

Photos provided by Bunnell Fish-skin wallets by Homer’s Adele Person is included in Bunnell’s CSA boxes this year.

Photo provided by Bunnell Street Arts Center
Pottery by Marie Herdegen, one of six pieces of art in this year’s CSA boxes.

Photo provided by Bunnell Street Arts Center Pottery by Marie Herdegen, one of six pieces of art in this year’s CSA boxes.

Photo provided by Bunnell
Seldovia artist Valisa Higman’s coloring book is one of six pieces of local artwork included in Bunnell’s CSA boxes this year.

Photo provided by Bunnell Seldovia artist Valisa Higman’s coloring book is one of six pieces of local artwork included in Bunnell’s CSA boxes this year.

Photo provided by Bunnell
“Stadium Rockfish” tea towels by Abigail Kokai are one of several items by local artists included in this year’s CSA boxe.

Photo provided by Bunnell “Stadium Rockfish” tea towels by Abigail Kokai are one of several items by local artists included in this year’s CSA boxe.

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