In this quaint little art town with a fishing problem, as sure as the king salmon return to the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon and the lupine bloom along the Spit Trail, come June, the arts scene blossoms. This weekend will see not just the usual gallery openings for First Friday, but the opening of the first Pier One Theatre local production (see story, page 22) and the Pratt Museum’s summer show.

Art lovers can add the Pratt to the Friday art crawl, but the reception happens from 5-7 p.m. today for the opening of Asia Freeman and Michael Walsh’s duo show, “Watermark.” Watermark means a subtle symbol put on paper or digital images to protect against counterfeiting or protect ownership, but in this context it also means the influence of water on the artists. Painter Freeman and digital artist Walsh share a studio, but also “a sensual language of mark marking with a focus on water as media and muse,” they write in their artists’ statement.

New art venues Homeric Traders and the Homer Elks Lodge continue First Friday opening. At Homeric Traders on Ocean Drive, Nicole Wall of Moose Haves shows her work. At the Elks, artist Gus Beck is this month’s Paint In artist, where an artist creates for three hours on the back deck and then the work is auctioned off.

“Texture” has evolved as an accidental theme for many shows. Textile artist Amy Meissner and metalsmith artist (and former textile artist) Mary Kay Denkewalter play around with texture in their works at Bunnell Street Arts Center. At the Homer Council on the Arts, paper collage artist Desiree Hagen expands her media into synthetic materials in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms. Homer artist Jean Steele offers a playful foray into ceramic and found art, with her Sea Bowls and driftwood sculptures at Ptarmigan Arts.

Other shows include paintings by Ed Tussey at the Art Shop Gallery and by Sandra Falkner-Chandler at Fireweed Gallery.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.