First Friday: Local artists featured

May kicks off Homer’s summer arts season with a wide variety of shows, including a pop-up by Flex School students to celebrate the end of the school year and their creative efforts.

Homer artists dominate this month’s shows, with exhibits by local artists Carla Cope, Erik Larson, Ranja Dean, Jay Wright, Jen Norton, Lorri L. Davis and Laura Faeo. From Cope’s bold paintings to Norton’s playful sketches inspired by the musical, Spamalot, it’s a standout display of Homer talent.

The 23rd annual Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society’s show at the Fireweed Gallery returns. Member artists show their individual work, but they also continue the tradition of a collaborative painting, where each artist paints a section of a large painting.

As a preview of the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, festival artists again show their 6×6 work at K-Bay Caffé. Also showing is festival featured artist Valisa Higman.

While there won’t be a First Friday exhibit, last month’s Homer Council on the Arts retrospective show of Shirley Timmreck’s art moves to the South Peninsula Hospital gallery.

Reach Michael Armstrong at marmstrong@homernews.com.

Art Shop Gallery

202 W. Pioneer Ave.

3-D Stained Glass by Lisa Carlon

5-7 p.m., Friday Reception

Lisa Carlon has been creating 3-dimensional stained glass for more than 25 years. She specializes in Alaska flowers or other natural subjects and scenes. Each piece is hand crafted and one of a kind. Therefore, each piece is unique. Her show will consist of multi-florals like daisies, tulips and fireweed. She also will have octopus and seastars on mirrors and much more.

Bunnell Street Arts Center

106 W. Bunnell Ave.

The Shadowline’s Daughter, paintings by Carla Cope

New pottery by Erik Larson

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

Carla Cope’s new exhibition of paintings, “The Shadowline’s Daughter,” is inspired by events, moments and memories of life lived in Homer. Carla was born in Homer, grew up fishing with her dad on the F/V Shadowline and studied art from a young age. “The Shadowline’s Daughter” is a collection of fragments of experience made precious through the act of making, gathered together to tell a story,” she writes in her artist’s statement. “It’s about what nurtured and sustains me: fishing, farming, and family, and my personal relationship to home and tradition. I draw from the scenes, colors and patterns I encounter and I’m interested in connecting to our collective experience of our local landscape and lifestyle.”

Homer potter Erik Larson also show his works. Of his art, he writes, “Warmth fills each morning after a hot brew is transformed by the vessel which contains the promise of the day’s beginning. What do you call a friend? What draws you to them and how do you stay friends over time? Does hardship pull you together or is it history? Do tenuous circumstances inundate the existence of truth and solidify sustainability? I strive to create a vessel that you reach for each day, the one that you place in the front of the cupboard, ready for action.”

Dean Family Gallery

40374 Waterman Road

Out After Dark, drawings by Ranja Dean

5-9 p.m., Friday Reception

Ranja Dean creates drawings inspired by her deep connection with the four-legged kingdom, the magic of life and many a night adventuring beneath the stars.

Fireweed Gallery

475 E. Pioneer Ave.

23rd Annual Spring Show by Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society artists

5-6:30 p.m., Friday Reception

The 23rd Annual Spring Show from the Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society features individual works as well as its annual collaborative painting, “Floats and Flowers.”

Flex High School

4122 Ben Walters Lane

Art by Flex students

4-6 p.m., Friday Reception

Flex students show ceramic work created during an Artist in the School residency with Jeff Szarzi as well as other art done during the school year.

Grace Ridge Brewery

3388 B. Street off Ocean Drive

New work by Capt. Jay Wright

5-7:30 p.m., First Friday

Of his work, Capt. Jay Wright writes, “what my eyes see is the beauty and simplicity of Alaska’s nature at its finest. This is carried into my artwork using pen and pencil for the benefit and enjoyment of all who wish to join in.”

Homer Council on the Arts

355 W. Pioneer Ave.

Spamalot art by Jen Norton

5-7 p.m., First Friday

Artist, bookseller, mother and Pier One Theatre and Homer Nutcracker artistic director Jen Norton shows work inspired by the 2018 musical “Spamalot.” The exhibit also includes original costumes and props from the show.

Norton writes: “My drawings are all done in ink on beepaper. It has been so fun to revisit the characters created by community actors. The art of theatre is truly a collaboration, and my own personal art is continually inspired and fueled by that collaborative art.

“The drawings in this show were all created late at night. During the day, I am a bookseller at the Homer Bookstore, Artistic Director of Pier One Theatre, Artistic Director of the Homer Nutcracker, wife of a water taxi captain, and mother of a 3-year-old son. It is a wonderful and full life.”

K-Bay Caffé

378 E. Pioneer Ave.

6×6 Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival art show and auction

5-7 p.m., First Friday

The Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival shows its 6×6 art show collection with donated works by artists in the 6-inch square format. The artists also show other work. Also bid on donated items like featured shorebird festival artist Valisa Higman’s original cut-paper festival art work, water taxi rides with Bay Excursion, a stay at Jakolof Bay cabins, massages and more. Visit biddingowl.com/kachemakshorebird for information

Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery

471 E. Pioneer Ave.

Woods, Water Wildlife, by Laura Faeo

5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception

Laura Faeo shows works based on plein-air meditations including natural scenes, animals, and seasonal elements. While she often works as a ceramicist, her work for this show is done in watercolor pencils.

The Shop: Kachemak Bay Art Space

60388 Bear Creek Court

In Search of Birds: A Journey to Reverence, art by Lorri L. Davis

7-9 p.m., First Friday Reception