First Friday in May happens virtually

Normally May would herald the reopening of galleries closed for the winter — but in the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, nothing is normal.

For First Friday on May 1, some venues will hold virtual, Zoom or online openings.

At Bunnell Street Arts Center, the gallery reopens cautiously on May 1, with hours Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Under modifications to health mandates announced last week by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Bunnell will allow up to five customers in at a time. All visitors are required to wear masks, with no exceptions. Staff will wear them, too. Hand sanitizer will be available and its use is encouraged upon entering and leaving.

However, Bunnell’s opening of Thorey Munro’s exhibit, “Sea-change,” will be held via Zoom conferencing. Listen to her artist talk, get a preview of the show and then come back and see it with a few friends.

Bunnell also holds its weekly Zoom conference, “Inspiration in Isolation,” on Thursdays from 11 a.m. to noon. Visit www.bunnellarts.org for information.

Homer Council on the Arts will also do an online version of its show, “Shorebirds of Kachemak Bay,” featuring work by various artists. The show celebrates the return of shorebirds to Kachemak Bay.

Reach Michael Armstrong at marmstrong@homernews.com.

Bunnell Street Arts Center

106 W. Bunnell Ave.

Sea-change by Thorey Munro

6 p.m., Zoom online exhibit and artist talk, First Friday Opening

Homer artist Thorey Munro describes her work as “a conversation with the inner lives of landscapes, bodies, light and time. The collages in ‘Sea-change’ are a conversation with the ever-shifting tidal, seasonal, surreal, and sleep-deprived river landscapes of Bristol Bay. The collage process illuminates an underlying entanglement of water, light and life. I cut and fit photographs of my own with historical images to see nonlinear time as a place to dream about future. The images loosen up associations of form and meaning, scale and time, and tease out new connections from existing materials.”

Munro created sun drawing photographs or solargraphs “made from long-exposure pinhole cameras affixed as witnesses,” she writes. “They soak up time from the sun’s light to show the movements of days, weeks, seasons in a single image. They are a tool to see time embedded in landscape, the extreme shifts in seasonal light, and to remind us that everything is always in motion.

“The collages, books and solargraphs in ‘Sea-change’ are games: apparatuses to tease, dig, rhyme, and ask questions of landscapes in time.”

Munro does a Zoom artist talk starting at 6 p.m. To join and view the show online, register in advance at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcpcumurDsjH9DyyaDzc3afUE1kPN0frZ4u.

Homer Council on the Arts

344 W. Pioneer Ave.

Shorebirds of Kachemak Bay by various artists

First Friday Opening online and on Facebook

Although the Homer Council on the Arts remains closed, it will hold its May show, “Shorebirds of Kachemak Bay,” online at www.homerart.org and its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/HomerCouncilontheArts. Featured artists include Sharlene Cline, Cindy Nelson, Lorri Davis, Conrad Field and Amanda Kelly. Although the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival is canceled because of the pandemic, some exhibits will be shown, including this show.

Of her work, Sharlene Cline writes, “I try to capture the spirit and essence of Kachemak Bay shorebirds with simple powerful strokes of the Chinese mou-bi, a round paintbrush full at the base, narrowing to a point. For example, each tail feather is one stroke. This skill takes hours of practicing repetitive brush strokes so that ultimately the hand, coming from a calm meditative mind, knows intuitively how to paint its subject. Like a pianist practicing its scales and pieces over and over again so their performance comes from their soul not just reciting notes. It is through these dynamic brush strokes that the spirit of nature is captured.”

Cindy Nelson created a sandhill crane mosaic from eggshells. Of her work, she writes, “Once the desired color or value was obtained, I took that larger shell and applied pressure to crack it in different shapes. Choosing the correct shape for my design is the puzzle maker in me as a mosaic artist. I chose to keep the crane in silhouette by using the many different colors of brown eggs.”

Art by Cindy Nelson from “Shorebirds of Kachemak Bay,” opening May 1, 2020, at the Homer Council on the Arts in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy Homer Council on the Arts)

Sharlene Cline’s “Western Sandpiper on Rocks” from “Shorebirds of Kachemak Bay,” opening May 1, 2020, at the Homer Council on the Arts in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy Homer Council on the Arts)

Sharlene Cline’s “Western Sandpipers” from “Shorebirds of Kachemak Bay,” opening May 1, 2020, at the Homer Council on the Arts in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy Homer Council on the Arts)

Lorri Davis’ “Hitchhiker, Juvenile Blue Heron,” from “Shorebirds of Kachemak Bay,” opening May 1, 2020, at the Homer Council on the Arts in Homer, Alaska. (Photo courtesy Homer Council on the Arts)