Artist Talks @ Bunnell

April 5th, First Friday with Diane Melms

”Honoring tradition and seeking innovation, I strive to push the quilt form into new territory. With a firm foundation in traditional textiles, and an art and design background, I am inspired to use my technical skills and creative drive to invent new ways to express my ideas in cloth. In many ways, I have pushed myself to ‘think outside the block’ with both concept and technique.” Learn more.

March 1, First Friday with Kendra Harvey

Ceramicist Kendra Harvey exhibits at Bunnell Street Arts Center for the month of March. The exhibit opens on Friday, March 1, 2024 from 5-7pm with an artist talk at 6pm. Harvey will also host two plate painting workshops for Bunnell’s 30th Annual Plate Project.

“Storytelling is the foundation of my art. Throughout time and across cultures, mythologies have been formed out of our everyday lives. These shared narratives illuminate human nature, provide comfort, and foster connection. Reinforcing this connection is the core of my work. I want to capture the feeling of hearing a familiar tale once again, but in a new form. Through the rich history of their imagery and symbolism, animals invite endless creative freedom. Detached from the intimately recognizable human figure, they are still relatable through their roles in our lore. I see them as vessels for the human condition, emotions, and relationships. The scenes are enhanced by color interaction that’s inspired by emotional content and the landscape around me. Placing these subjects in compositions on the wall elevates them and evokes sacred imagery. Their floating positions reinforce that they belong to a world adjacent to our own, evoking the line between reality and fantasy. My work is an investigation of pervasive queries about the human experience and world around us. How do we define ourselves in the other? Which of our unique qualities can also be universal? Is there a purpose to human imagination, and why do we filter our reality through it? Through the oldest medium on earth, storytelling, I hope to inspire the viewer to consider humanity’s progress and its future while honoring its past.”

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February 2, 2024 First Friday with Megan DeCino

"

I make two kinds of art: for myself, and for other people.

The art I make for myself — paintings and mixed media pieces — come from a place of uneasiness and isolation. I dwell on worst case scenarios: violent breakups, car crashes, bloody accidents. Sometimes the lonely characters I create are silly or absurd in their nightmarish realities. I enjoy straddling the line between comedy and horror.

The art I make for other people — cards and valentines — are my light hearted, whimsical tokens of love. I cut and collage each one with the recipient in mind — a tiny altar devoted to them. I send them in homemade envelopes all across the world to friends, mentors, and sometimes strangers from the internet.

The dichotomy in my work is a reflection of my heart — full, optimistic, and willing to be broken over and over. Magically regenerating, Valentine’s Day after Valentine’s Day. I paint to put form to my angst and loneliness, and I make cards in an attempt to connect and send love in physical form." - Megan DeCino

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December 3rd, 2023 First Friday with Carol Lambert

“Perseverance is an exhibition of multicolor intaglio etchings and other works on paper by Carol Lambert. Lambert’s images touch on common experiences, including birth, death, trust, fear, safety, threat, and conditions on planet Earth. Both cartooning and classical drawing inform her whimsical style. Her work bridges fantasy and realism as she explores her theme of resilience in the face of peril.” – Carol Lambert

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November 3,2023 First Friday Artist Talk with Rafael de la Uz

Artist Statement: “My photography focuses on telling stories, so my goal is to build a narrative from a group of images, organized in a specific order instead of aiming for visual excellence in one single image. An isolated photograph has a certain aesthetic value, but a set of photos uses the power of visual storytelling to tell a story and stories are powerful tools of communication. That is what I try to achieve as a photographer. This exhibition is about isolation, or my personal vision of my son’s isolation, his strategies to adapt to his new life, his special relationship with the sea, his particular vision of Alaska, his experience here.” – Rafael de la Uz

 

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October 6th, 2023, First Friday with Lydia Moyer

Bunnell Street Arts Center welcomes multidisciplinary artist, Lydia Moyer from September 23rd – October 22rd as artist in residence. Moyer will exhibit work, share an artist talk, and offer community workshops throughout the month of October at Bunnell Street Arts Center.

Moyer says, “My work is a transpersonal response to a sense of crisis in the world. It casts the individual amidst the collective, wrestling with the overwhelming social, political, and environmental concerns that are the shadow of late capitalism, particularly as it looms in the U.S. I bear witness to these concerns alternately by conflating one with another, speaking from the past or future in order to address the present, and playing with the absurd and uncanny amidst melancholy and grief. Moving equally and sometimes seamlessly between self-created and existing materials, I hope to evoke a felt-sense of unshielded – and unheroic – awareness through image, sound, and text.”

September 8th, Second Friday - 10 x 10 Member’s Exhibit

“Taking Care” exhibit statement:  How do artists express care for self, community, other life forms and the land? How do artists picture resilience, innovation, and healing? As first responders, artists lead as healers through their creations. In times of tension, crisis or distress, artists surface truth and create images of energy, vibrancy, and hope. The exhibition, “Taking Care,” aims  to foster hope, spark joy, and nurture self and community resilience.

 

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August 4th, First Friday, Lawrence R. ‘Ulaaq’ Ahvakana

Inuit artist, Lawrence “Ulaaq’’ Ahvakana, shows a variety of sculpture in stone, wood, bronze and glass as well as masks and two-dimensional works on paper.

“My inspiration is our Inuit stories, from everyday Northern Alaska lifestyle of subsistence, ceremonies, and the natural cycles of Arctic living depicted in stone, wood, bronze, glass, others including prints, paintings and drawings.” more

July 7th, First Friday, Linda Infante Lyons

“In the spirit of inclusivity, I blend the spiritual symbols of Western culture with those of the Alaska Native people, elevating the culture and worldview of my ancestors. I acknowledge the duality of my heritage and invite the viewer to consider Alaska Native beliefs as equal to Western beliefs.

I present images of Alaska Native women, inspired by friends, family and fellow artists as the powerful beings I know them to be. Additionally, the land, animals and plant life take a rightful place as equals in my paintings.”

 

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June 2nd, First Friday, Antoinette Walker

For the month of June, Bunnell presents encaustic painter from Kodiak, Antoinette Walker. Exhibit opening will be on June 2nd from 5-7pm, with an artist talk at 6pm. The evening also opens the 6th Annual Community Supported Art (CSA) project and will introduce 2023 CSA artists after Antoinette’s artist talk.

“My creativity and life stories are expressed with coastal marine themes that capture the wild beauty of my home, Alaska. Encaustic is my material of choice; a blend of beeswax, damar crystals and pigment. Often using charts, scraps of paper and found objects that are embedded in the wax medium. I draw upon first-hand experiences of fishing, its dangers and excitement.”

“Eroding river banks, weathered canneries, set net sites, surfaces beaten by heavy winds and torrential seas and rustic landscapes tell a compelling story. With every year there are subtle changes and inspirations for a fresh perspective. I’m drawn to these surfaces with textural layers that disclose a story. Using encaustic, painting, scraping, and scratching, I seek to reveal pieces that speak of the past and present. For me, inspiration is often a mystery. In painting, one thing inspires while another fades away. As in the landscape, changes are absorbed and reconfigured.”

Bio:

Antoinette Walker is an encaustic painter based in Kodiak. She is known primarily for her coastal marine subjects. Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, is a form of painting that involves a heated wax medium to which colored pigments have been added. Using encaustic and embedding papers, charts, fish tickets and found objects Antoinette creates pieces that reflect her love of Alaska. Born in 1953 and raised on Kodiak Island, she has studied and practiced art for most of her life. For the past twenty-three years her primary medium has been encaustic. Her work is recognized and collected throughout Alaska. It has been exhibited in the Anchorage Historical Museum and is held in the collections of the Pratt Museum in Homer, Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Baronov Museum in Kodiak, Kodiak Public Library, Providence Hospital, Kodiak, and Credit Union 1 in Kodiak.

The Visual Arts Exhibition program is sponsored by North Wind Home Collection, art sales, and individual donors. Thank You!