Artist Talks @ Bunnell

May, 2026 First Friday w/ Tina Konec

“For more than a decade, drawing has been central to my artistic practice. Working with pencil and black ink, I build dense structures of lines that gradually form fragments of coniferous branches. The process itself is essential to my work and often takes on a meditative quality, unfolding through repetition, rhythm, and sustained attention. Nature holds a particular significance for me as a constant source of inspiration. The recurring motif of coniferous branches originates in the landscape of my home environment, where such trees are abundant. In my work, this natural form becomes a universal structure through which broader reflections on life, perception, and the many forms emerging from nature are revealed.”

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May, 2026 First Friday w/ Oceana Wills

This body of work takes place locally in the landscapes of the Kachemak Bay area, among the plants and animals we share space with. It contains many of the ideas and themes I continue to explore in my art: Relationships to nature, community, and self, appreciation of the ordinary and the beauty found anywhere, acknowledgment of anxieties, sorrows, and unknowns, expressions of holding and being held. Also included is playfulness and curiosity as I followed what most excited me creatively. I let myself embrace eclectic concepts and imagery with trust that the work would fit together through pattern, color, and possibility of evocation. I often approach painting like collage, pulling observational and imagined images together with the question of how they relate. This exhibit offers a question that comes to mind almost daily–what color blue–on horizon, on cloud bottom, on coffee mug, water jug, on the palette. Blue is open to interpretation, an invitation to notice.

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April, 2026 First Friday w/ Tamara Burgh

“I discovered the book “Alaskan Igloo Tales” (c. 1974, illustrations by G. Agupuk) years ago while working in Nome, AK’s Indian Education Art and Culture Program. At that time, the stories in this book felt strange and distant from modern Native culture and experience.

My self-studies in myth, history, Native cultures, and spirituality renewed my interest in the fascinating and inspiring stories in “Alaskan Igloo Tales.” I’ve chosen to visually reinterpret the book’s Inupiaq-identifying stories based on my new understanding, gained through studying Joseph Campbell’s mythic language and symbols.

This project started with two residencies at IAIA in Santa Fe and continued with a residency at Makotaay Art Village in Taiwan. I’ve illustrated all thirty stories in watercolor. These watercolor sketches serve as composition and color studies for moku hanga, a Japanese woodblock-style printmaking process.” learn more. 

March 2026, First Friday w/ Austin Parkhill

Just Listen

“I’ve come to believe in the river, where we are most aligned with flow. Responding to each turn and turbulence with a measure of calm. It requires space for attention. It requires listening.

This selection of works is the result of listening. Of guided intuition. The works have differing origins. For some, it began with first light skipping across the snow. Or it was pangs of distant connection, or the immediacy of a bond. Others evade my certainty. They all shift and defy their inception. To define their relationship would limit their potential, and the moment is wildly full of potential. Stand in the water, in the snow. Just listen.”

February 2026, First Friday w/ xochiyollotl

“I remember the first summer I noticed the trees shriveling, turning grey, eaten from the inside out. The air was hot and the rain never came. The swing tree and the joy it brought, lives now only in my mind. more.

December 2025, First Friday w/ Tamara Wilson

An installation and studio artist from Fairbanks, Tamara Wilson exhibits  “Street Lamp” for the month of December at Bunnell Street Arts Center. The exhibit opens on first Friday, December 5th from 5-7pm with an artist talk at 6pm.

Artist Statement:

“Creatures created from a place of wonder, wander, joy, and grief. As my work shifts away from deciphering my curiosity of domestic space, I have become increasingly fixed on what slash who occupies these spaces. Manifested from a love for lamps, many of these artworks have literally and inspirationally evolved from the table lamp."

 

https://www.bunnellarts.org/tamara-wilson-exhibit-december-2025/

November 2025, First Friday - 10 x 10 Members Exhibit

This year’s exhibit represents 137 works by 68 artist members from Alaska and beyond. Professional development through annual exhibition opportunities is heart-centered Mission work. Thank you to the new and renewing artist members of this year! more

October 2025, First Friday w/ Laine Rinehart

“As I engage with the variety of communities across Alaska through my craft as a weaver I hope to share this knowledge, joy and passion through a series of weaving demonstrations, speaking engagements as well as weaving workshops. It’s my hope.. to engage with the community by sharing my art and craft in as many ways as possible.” – Laine Rinehart

October 2025, First Friday w/ Ethan Kayaaní Lauesen

“Raven Stole the Stars, Raven Stole My Heart is a collection of prints that I have created through my process of self reflection and growth. I am Denaakk’e Koyukon Athabaskan and Lingít, more specifically Raven/ Dog Salmon clan or sukteeneidí. My show title reflects a well known Tlingit story about Raven stealing the sun; in the context of Raven stealing my heart, it is meant to represent myself and my own agency in regards to the choices I make and associated consequences.” – Ethan Kayaaní Lauesen

September 2025, First Friday w/ Lynn Larsen

“Mountains of bare rock, like those on the north side of the Brooks Range, interest me, since devoid of trees, the mountains show their geological journey. In my paintings I always have tried to be true to the land’s geological story, showing the layers and shapes of rocks as they exist today. But the geological history—dating of layers, push of plates, classifying of rocks and minerals—is too linear an understanding and does not capture the experience of sitting before a mountain and looking. All time feels present when silently looking at a mountain; all past and all future become one in the moment." more...