Arts

Johnny B. show starts

In her show “Emergence,” now on exhibit at the Homer Council on the Arts, Astrid Friend’s paintings have a soft focus. Her images appear like the Kenai Mountains clouded in wispy fog. Colors from her palette reflect the light of winter, pale blues and pinks from a low sun. Some paintings have a stark contrast, though, sharp lines and bold geometric shapes that Friend said she used in her black-and-white film photography.

Seldovia once again offers a weekend of music and art around the summer solstice. Sponsored by the Seldovia Arts Council, the 17th annual Summer Solstice Music Festival runs June 22-25 at Homer’s village neighbor on the south shore of Kachemak Bay.

For attendees at the Kachemak Bay Writers Conference, listening to keynote addresses can be like panning for gold at an Alaska back road tourist attraction. You have to pay to get in, and sometimes you don’t find much to take home. Open-to-the-public readings bring writers and poets out into the community, but the opening talk is just for the conference goers. Most keynote speakers deliver inspiring talks, though.

Internationally acclaimed Homer garden designer, Brenda Adams, has just published her second book on the subject of gardening in northern latitudes. The new book from the University of Alaska Press, “Cool Plants for Cold Climates: A Garden Designer’s Perspective,” has already received high praise from garden experts worldwide.

At the first Kachemak Bay Writers Conference in 2002, keynote speaker Russell Banks drove a cherry-red Hummer to Homer for a magazine article he wrote.

Garden designer Adams signs new book at Bookstore

SNL band leader plays Monday at Bunnell

Multiple artist shows are featured for First Friday art openings. At Bunnell Street Arts Center, printmaker and woodcarver Sara Tabbert joins ceramic artist Carla Potter. At Ptarmigan Arts, more woodworkers show their art, with Ted Heuer, George Overpeck and Jerry Froeschle. At Fireweed Gallery an aunt and her niece, beader Kate Broylan and tattoo artist Annie Rivers, exhibit their work in “The Black Line.” The show’s title refers to the common motif of tattoo art, but also the theme of their show.

Except as noted, all performances are $15 general, $14 seniors, $13 Raven’s Club, $10 youth and $45 family.

Now in its 44th year, Homer’s little red theater opens the 2017 season with “The Drunkard,” the play that began it all when Pier One Theatre started in 1973 in a former beer warehouse at the end of the Spit.

‘Cow Woman’ author signs new book

Bear Creek Music Fest is Saturday

Good Alaska memoirs distinguish themselves in several ways: they capture a time and place in our state’s culture, they tell the truth of that culture as experienced by the author, and the prose sings with good description, vivid dialogue and a strong narrative voice.

About 300 people attended the Kachemak Bay Quilters’ 33rd annual quilt show, held last Mother’s Day weekend at the Homer Elks Lodge. Winning awards in People’s Choice, as voted on by attendees, are:

Pier One holds Shakespeare

Continuing a tradition of featuring women musicians to close out the final night, Salmonfest this year brings back to the lower Kenai Peninsula one of Homer’s most successful performers, singer-songwriter Jewel. The daughter of Atz Kilcher and Nedra Carroll, Jewel grew up in Homer as part of the musically talented extended Kilcher family.

Bunnell holds Plate Project opening reception Saturday

The Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival weekend brings not only shorebirds to Homer, but art about birds. For First Friday, several galleries feature exhibits of bird art. At the Art Shop Gallery, it’s “All About Birds,” the title of a show with works by Byron Birdsal, Shirley Timmreck, Taz Tally, Laural Sabin and Nancy Wise. At Fireweed Gallery, watercolor artist MaryBee Kaufmann considers the threats to seabirds, especially the common murre, with her show, “Beacons of Circumstance.” Fireweed also features the annual Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society’s show, including its popular collaborative work, where individual artists paint a section of a larger painting. This year’s piece is “Off-loading.”

‘On the Wing’ returns