Artist Talks @ Bunnell

August 5th, 2022 First Friday with David Pettibone and Deb Schwartzkopf

 

“I moved to Alaska in search of wilderness. Painting being an autobiographical medium, these works describe the domesticated wilderness in which I now call home.” – David Pettibone

“As a studio artist my goal is to make fabulous tableware that infuses life with purposeful beauty. As an active community member and instructor I use my unique skill set, as an artist and small business owner, to offer educational opportunities. Through clay, I create pathways to cross-pollinate communities.” – Deb Schwartzkopf

 

 

 

June 11th, 2022 First Friday Protection: Adaptation and Resistance

In times of pandemic, climate crisis, and ongoing assaults to human rights, how are Indigenous Alaska artists today strengthening self and community, and guiding the next generation from surviving to thriving?  Protection: Adaptation and Resistance centers Indigenous ways of knowing. Working within intergenerational learning groups and as collaborators in vibrant community networks, Alaska’s Indigenous artists are invigorating traditional stories in customary arts and proposing resilient futures through design, tattoo, regalia and graphic arts. Artist projects elevate collaboration, allyship, and community as tools of resistance, adaptation, and cultural affirmation. The exhibition explores three themes:  Land and Culture Protectors, Activists for Justice and Sovereignty and Resilient Futures.

Learn More.

Nationally touring exhibition, Protection: Adaptation and Resistance opens at the Pratt Museum, Saturday, June 11 from 4 – 6pm, with an artist/curator talk at 5 pm.

May 6th, 2022 First Friday with Amber Webb

Exhibiting artist, Amber Webb will create new work during her two-week residency from April 20-May 7. Her explorations of pictorial Yup’ik storytelling communicate contemporary stories of resilience, humor, changing climate, motherhood, historic trauma and resistance. “I will focus on a small wood carving or series of carvings based on a series of fat indigenous women. This is a continuation of exploring Yup’ik ways of making and honors the original intent of the series.”

October 5th, 2018 First Friday with Keren Lowell

Anchorage artist, Keren Lowell, exhibits and visits as the Homer Fiber Arts Collective’s Artist-in-Residence at Bunnell, exploring fiber arts construction techniques in a series of workshops for local artists.

Lowell uses discarded items and reinvents them using a range of techniques into three dimensional textile art. Her work explores themes including erosion and translucence. Her work is neither solely painting, sculpture nor installation and yet takes elements of all three to create powerful and emotional art that has a raw beauty, depth and intelligence. Her workshops will explore how to use flexible materials in a sculptural way.

“I think and visualize things in three dimensions, but traditional sculpture mediums (wood, metal, stone, clay) are too rigid and absolute for me. Textiles operate the way that most organic and fluid things operate. I also appreciate the way that textiles evoke our own skin. I think of textiles as visual metaphors for the human (especially the feminist/queer/curious) condition,” says Lowell.

2019 Community Supported Artist Talk

• Chloe Bechtol: Alaska wildlife pen and ink box top drawing
• David Kaufmann: Porcelain mug
• Kelsey Hardy-Place: Linoleum lunar calendar
• Maygen Lotscher: Ceramic shell tray
• Nancy Johnson: hand painted rock
• Mandy Bernard: Silk-screen printed tea towel

CSA Members receive multiple works from local artists at a fantastic value and develop relationships with the local artists and art community. The CSA program allows a point of entry for collectors to discover new artists and explore a variety of disciplines while supporting local artists’ careers and a vibrant community.

April 1st, 2022 First Friday with Nathan Hall

Nathan Hall is a multidisciplinary sound and visual artist creating new work reflecting on his site-specific experience in Homer during his artist residency.

April 1st 2022 First Friday with Jesse Egner

Jesse Egner is a New York-based artist working primarily with photography and video. Often taking the form of playful and absurd portraiture of himself and other individuals, his work explores themes of queerness, disidentification, queer corporeality, and the uncanny.

March 4th, 2022 First Friday w/ Berith Stennabb

"The power of meeting physically in the same room has become increasingly important during the pandemic era. I am interested in roads to new communication regardless of language, socio-economic, or geographical affiliation. I do this through everyday movements and through textile materials. My exploratory work with what I call Folding Ritual is a way to communicate wordlessly and intuitively. Folding a piece of clothing together, which may carry a special story, is a way to deepen the understanding of the other and of oneself. Likewise, the Untangling Project is through the chaos and order of the thread a way to communicate in authentic movements in everyday choreography. I would like to explore these relational methods in my residence and also visit people's homes if possible under the prevailing pandemic circumstances. These meetings are documented in a filmed material and will form the basis of my artistic design in the gallery at Bunnell. I also want to find material from discarded fishing nets material from the fishing industry into a parallel spatial design with my crochet and weave in stories about how the pandemic has affected the residents of Homer." more...

 

Website:  berithstennabb.se

 

Berith’s residency sponsored by Alaska Community Foundation's Irma Scavenius Fund for International Understanding. 

February 4th, 2022: First Friday Don Decker

"I have been walking the trails, forests and shores of Alaska for 50 years, always in the company of a loyal dog. The sub-arctic environment has been a constant source of information and inspiration. I refer to these elements of nature, but not as illustrations. The images in my art evolve out of the practice of working daily in my studio.

My focus has been not only the expansive Northern landscape, but the patches of ground beneath my feet as well. I work in an abstract expressionist manner in painting, while my drawings are usually tighter and detailed. Both media reflect my extemporaneous and experimental approach.

I have been University trained and have studied the art in great museums of the World. I value originality though historic themes such as modernism continually permeate my decision making during the process of painting or drawing.

The struggle to improve is challenging and never ending. Each empty canvas or page is a new beginning. Inherent in the process is the danger of mis-step or failure. It’s like walking on thin ice." - Don Decker, Learn More

December 3rd, 2021 First Friday: Kim McNett

Artist, naturalist and adventurer Kim McNett will share nature journal pages and original works of art that describe her travels across various regions of Alaskan wilderness.