Heading into the Fourth of July weekend, July openings celebrate a freedom not often noted in art: media, not just subject.

At Bunnell Street Arts Center, Halibut Cove artist Annette Bellamy continues her experimentation with clay art forms.

Bellamy has become known for using clay as a sculptural medium, shaping works that seem everyday and stripping form almost to the abstract. Like Antoinette Walker, also showing at Bunnell, Bellamy comes from a commercial fishing background.

Both artists explore maritime themes, with Walker painting highly detailed encaustics.

At Fireweed Gallery, another clay artist, Michael Anderson of Cordova, creates functional pottery with a playful approach.

At Ptarmigan Arts, in “A fresh edge,” a trio of woodworkers go beyond the bowl with turnings that drill down into the beauty of wood. George Overpeck’s turnings create abstract forms from wood grain and a microbial process called spalting.

Another Homer artist, Ted Heuer, combines several species of wood into a piece. Jerry Froeschle combines delicate sculptures of subjects like kelp with more practical bowls.

At the Homer Council of the Arts, hyperrealistic painter Austin Parkhill shows his MEGAfauna series, scenes based on Parkhill’s years living in Barrow before moving to Homer.

And at the Art Shop Gallery, photographer Taz Tally demonstrates how the realistic medium of photography can go beyond landscapes and still lives and examine the power of nature.

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