Jubilee art featured for March

For First Friday this month, it’s all about the kids. At the Homer Council on the Arts, March celebrates student artists for its Jubilee art show for artists from kindergarten through high school. The annual show not only highlights student artists, but as artists keep returning for the exhibit, people can see their progression and growth over time.

Older, more experienced artists show their work at The Shop for “Figure Drawing,” art from the Homer Life Drawing Group. Each week the group gathers at Homer Art & Frame to draw and paint from live models. Curated by Lynda Reed, the exhibit explores the classical craft of depicting the human form.

Artist Jimmy Riordan’s LRDL Project at Bunnell Street Arts Center uses the elements of an initial writing project to create new art forms. Riordan has been working with and around Francis Jammes’ French novel, “Le Roman du Lièvre,” first translating it from French, and then publishing a letterpress edition of the work. He has created sculptures made from melting the monotype used to print the work and taken photographs of objects collected during his project.

Also opening Friday is an exhibit of new abstract works by Karen Roush at Grace Ridge Brewery and fused glass sculpture by Nicole Cavalier at Fireweed Gallery.

Reach Michael Armstrong at marmstrong@homernews.com.

Bunnell Street Arts Center

106 W. Bunnell Ave.

LRDL Project, sculpture and posters by Jimmie Riordan

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

For more than a decade Jimmy Riordan has been working with and around Francis Jammes’ turn of the century French novel, “Le Roman du Lièvre.” Beginning with his amateur effort to translate the story without knowing French, Riordan’s “Le Roman du Lièvre” (LRDL) project continues to reimagine itself and the arrangement of its various parts. This exhibition presents two new works, LRDL2018.01, a sculptural work, and LRDL2017.01, a series of posters. Both represent efforts to organize materials related to the LRDL project. The works on show are the result of an extensive archival endeavor as well performative events that the artist conducted over the past few years.

In 2014 Riordan published a letterpress print of his translation of “Le Roman du Lièvre,” and over the last four years, as part of various readings, meals and performances, the monotype used in the printing process has been organized alphabetically, each letter melted down into a series of lead forms. LRDL2018.01 is a sculptural work that collects these forms in piles of various weights, demonstrating another way to organize and understand the language comprising Riordan’s translation.

In the fall of 2017 Riordan began a year long residency at the Anchorage Museum resource center and archives. Throughout his visits, he focused on documenting, cataloging and then disposing of the various material collected over the previous ten years of his LRDL project. LRDL2017.01 is the catalog number of this collection. Photographs of a selection of objects from the collection are on display, along with a set of archival drawers containing a selection of the physical objects collected and preserved over the course of LRDL project.

Dean Family Gallery

Waterman Road off Mile 5 East End Road

Polar Bear Art by Ranja, Jeff and M’fanwy Dean

5-9 p.m., First Friday

The gallery celebrates a belated International Polar Bear Day with special savings on polar bear art and partial donations to support international bear conservation and research.

Fireweed Gallery

475 E. Pioneer Ave.

Fused glass by Nicole Cavalier

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

Fireweed Gallery featured artist for March is fused glass artist Nicole Cavalier. Originally from the South, she met her partner, Bryan in 2000 and together built a unique kiln for their fused glass studio, Alaskan Glassy Waters Studio in Anchor Point.

In Nicole’s show, “Reflections of Alaska” she presents custom fused glass decorative glass art for the home. All pieces are 100 percent glass … no decals, inclusions, paints, enamels, etc.

Grace Ridge Brewery

3388 B. Street off Ocean Drive

New art by Karen Roush

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

Karen Roush is an abstract expressionist painter working in cold wax and oil. Small works on paper will be displayed at Grace Ridge and are available for plucking off the wall and taking home. All small paintings are ready for framing and signed by the artist. Larger paintings are available on wood cradles ready to hang. Roush is the owner of Tails-by-the-Bay dog camp where she cares for dogs in her home. When she’s not walking, feeding or playing ball with the dogs, she can be found in her studio painting while listening to snoring dogs. “Dogs provide me with more inspiration than you can imagine. They are my muse,” she writes.

Homer Council on the Arts

355 W. Pioneer Ave.

Jubilee Youth Art, art by various artists

5-7 p.m., First Friday

March is the month to celebrate youth in the arts at Homer Council on the Arts. Local art teachers have selected works for this exhibit that span a gamut of genres and forms. Submitted pieces include paintings on canvas and several “tunnel books,” handmade books that create an illusion of depth and perception. Three-dimensional art includes ceramics and some cardboard sculptures, a preview of a community art call for April. This annual exhibit brings community members back year after year, showing work from students from kindergarten through seniors in high school together in the same room, so that people can recognize the progress made as they develop their skills and perspective with each passing year.

Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery

471 E. Pioneer Ave.

Passion/Compassion, work by various artists

5-7 p.m., First Friday Reception

Ptarmigan Arts Gallery will hold over “Passion/Compassion,” a member show featuring artwork that represents those values to the Ptarmigan members. It features an eclectic mix of mediums, including fused glass, paintings, photography, bead work, turned wood and more. The show runs through April 3.

The Shop: Kachemak Bay Art Space

60388 Bear Creek Court

Figure Drawing, art by Homer’s Life Drawing Group

7-9 p.m., First Friday Reception

Curated by Lynda Reed, this month’s show features art by Homer’s Life Drawing Group. Each week, the group of local artists gather at Homer Art and Frame to draw and paint from live models, carrying on a centuries old tradition that celebrates the human form in art. The human figure is arguably the most complicated natural form to convincingly depict in drawing, painting and sculpting. The understanding of form, value, proportion, and composition (all important elements of any visual art) is fine tuned through the process of studying the human figure through drawing.