First Friday events

Bunnell Street Arts Center

106 W. Bunnell Ave.

Photography by Lauren Semivan

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception; 6 p.m., artists talk

Homer artist Lauren Semivan’s work combines drawing, an archive of objects, and the human presence as a narrative tool. Within each image, ghosts of previous drawings create a sense of time suspended, evoking gesture, atmosphere and memory, she writes.
“Photographs allow me to access the extraordinary, to keep a record of dreams, and to employ the unknown. Science is inherently experiential, as is art making. Knowing and feeling are not separate, and the whole of the environment can be used as a pedagogic instrument,” she writes.
Semivan was born in 1981 in Detroit and received her bachelor of arts in studio art from Lawrence University, in Appleton, Wis., and a master of fine arts in photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Fireweed Gallery

475 E. Pioneer Ave.

New work by Amanda Brannon

5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception

Fireweed Gallery revisits the work of author and artist Amanda Brannon. The 2014 featured Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival artist, Brannon has become known for her vivid and fanciful visions of moose, otters, ravens and other Alaska images.

An Alaska resident since 1994, Brannon primarily works in clay board engravings, a process she began using in 1996. Her large etchings can take up to 100 hours to complete. Brannon and her husband live in Eagle River. Her approach to life is summarized by the poet Rumi: “Let the beauty you love be what you do!”

Homer Council on the Arts

344 W. Pioneer Ave.

Technological Organica, by Aaron Carpenter

5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception

Homer News graphic artist Aaron Carpenter shows digital-photo composites and montages that combine photography with digital art. He will do a live demonstration at First Friday showing how he creates his work.

“Many of the works presented were created with no clear goal or vision in mind, as they were conjured using quasi-spontaneous methods,” Carpenter wrote of his work. “The images themselves are by-products of a larger quest to challenge the dichotomy of technology and organic form in an effort to bring these opposites together — not in contrast, but in the establishment of one thing.”

Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery

471 E. Pioneer Ave.

Surprises from Toby’s Attic, by R.W. “Toby” Tyler

5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception

Ptarmigan Art presents a show of retrospective work combined with some new pieces by longtime Homer artist R.W. “Toby” Tyler. One of Homer’s revered elder artist, Tyler is known for his ability to capture the beauty and essence of wildflowers and plants. He displays a collection of prints that has not been seen for many years, including five seasonal charts of local flowers and plants, a project that he undertook from 1979 to 1983.
Other items from his attic are sets of notepapers depicting 11 Russian Orthodox Churches in Alaska. From his days in California, Toby offers sets of notecards with intricate pen and ink drawings of Victorian-era homes. A special treat is a jigsaw puzzle replica of an oil and palette knife painting created by Toby in 1957. The original painting, also on display, captures the view of Grewingk Glacier as it appeared then. The show also includes original watercolors, acrylics and oil paintings.
A special surprise is new work done by Tyler since recovering from a stroke in December 2014. He recently returned to painting in studio space generously provided by the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. Working first with oils and a palette knife, he is now using a paintbrush and hopes to return to working with watercolors.