First Friday art exhibit openings feature bird-themed art

Birds, birds, birds is the theme of shows opening for First Friday at local galleries. With the 30th annual Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival this weekend, many galleries feature art with bird themes. Most prominent is the opening for shorebird festival featured artist Stacy Studebaker at Northern Vibe Artisan Gallery on the Spit. Northern Vibe also shows the 6×6 bird art show, an online auction to benefit the festival. Other galleries showing art with bird themes include Lorri Davis at Grace Ridge Brewery, Oceana Wills at Homer Council on the Arts, and Ted Heurer at Ptarmigan Arts.

Local schools also have First Friday exhibits, offering students a chance to show off their work over the year. Check out the work at Flex School and West Homer Elementary.

Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic, which offers reproductive health services as well as breast cancer screenings, shows “Pandemic Portraits,” a series of photographs with essays about women who had the double challenge of going through breast cancer treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Art Shop Gallery

202 W. Pioneer Ave.

Something New with Chris Story

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

Homer potter Chris Story shows work that takes his art in a new direction: sculpture. After 30 years of throwing pots, Story has changed things up a bit.

Bunnell Street Arts Center

106 W. Bunnell Ave.

Artist in residence Amber Webb

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception, with 6 p.m. artists talk

Bunnell Street Arts Center April and May artist in residence Amber Webb shows her drawings on wood panels. Her work is inspired by Yu’pik storytelling illustrating the evolution and strength of Indigenous people, as well as the effects of colonization and intergenerational trauma.

Creative Fires Studio and Dean Gallery

40374 Waterman Rd.

New work by the Dean family

6-8 p.m. First Friday Reception

The Dean Gallery shows new work by Jeff, Ranja, and M’fanwy Dean, including original carvings and prints by M’fanwy, Jeff’s large heat-colored steel engravings, and Ranja’s bronzes and giclee prints. Masks are required in the gallery.

Fireweed Gallery

475 E. Pioneer Ave.

Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society annual spring show

Hand-painted tiles by Nancy Hausle-Johnosn

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

For May, Fireweed Gallery presents the Annual Spring Show of new work by members of the Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society and the hand painted tiles with Alaskan images by Nancy Hausle-Johnson.

Grace Ridge Brewery

3388 B. Street off Ocean Drive

New work by Lorri L. Davis

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

Of her work, artist Lorri L. Davis writes, “As humans, we dedicate a great deal of time pursuing what is of keen interest to us. Wilderness stirs my passion. Its sweetness and the deliberate, purposeful living of its creatures enlivens me. Each painting replicates a journey. Afterwards, in the quiet of my studio I get to reflect on the sight, sounds and smells. Through paint and brush strokes, I interpret those precious, wonderful wanderings. These paintings are some of those moments.”

Homer Council on the Arts

355 W. Pioneer Ave.

Windowsills of Curiosity by Oceana Wills

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception; 5:30 p.m. artist talk

“Windowsills of Curiosity” by Oceana Wills features a new body of work in gouache, acrylic, and pen. It will move to South Peninsula Hospital for June. Of her work, Wills writes, “I found inspiration for this body of work on walks around my neighborhood before the snow had come. The goldenrod was in various degrees of seed; the goats beard hung elegantly. I thought these plants in their dry seed state to be so beautiful in the fall light and began collecting them as painting subjects.”

In association with HCOA, artist Susan Johnson this month displays her show, “A View from Out East,” at South Peninsula Hospital. A photographic journey featuring one farm through seasons and years, the show has been on display at the hospital since April 2 and will remain through May.

Homer Flex School

4122 Ben Walters Lane

Student work

4-6 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

Join the Flex School community in celebrating the work of their young artists created throughout the school year, including anew community mural collaboration with Bunnell Street Artist in the School David Brame.

Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic

3959 Ben Walters Lane

Pandemic Portraits

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

Pandemic Portraits, an exhibit honoring Alaska women who have faced cancer during COVID, is a new Affinityfilms Inc. project that includes a photo and an audio story of 16 different Alaska women from across the state taken by 15 different photographers. Author Deb McKinney wrote two- to three-minute narratives about each woman’s story and by clicking on a QR code on each photo, you can listen to narrator, Michelle Conklin, read the stories, allowing for insight into the journey each woman faced.

Northern Vibe Artisan Gallery

4025 Homer Spit Road, No. 12

Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival art: work by Stacy Studebaker and 6×6 artists

11 a.m. to 6 p.m., First Friday Opening

Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival featured artist Stacy Studebaker shows her work. Also included are an auction of paintings of birds in a 6-inch by 6-inch format by various artists.

Ptarmigan Arts Back Room Gallery

471 E. Pioneer Ave.

New work by Ted Heuer

10 am. to 7 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday

Ptarmigan’s own Ted Heuer shows new work. His show features the results of his experimentation with a camera trap to take close-up photos of birds. Also incorporating his customary work as a woodturner, Heurer turned a small collection of wooden shorebirds.

Pratt Museum & Park

3779 Bartlett St.

A Moveable Feast, curated from the museum collection by Marilyn Sigman

4-6 p.m. Friday

Curated by Pratt Museum Naturalist-in-Residence Marilyn Sigman, the exhibit examines Kachemak Bay as a place for migrating birds to rest and refuel, replenishing the fat stores required for migration and breeding.

“As we pay attention to and mind the birds, we can feast on the intricate and dynamic ecological connections they make manifest,” Sigman writes. The exhibit includes introductory narratives written by Sigman, bird specimens, works of art, scientific research posters, hands-on exhibits and bird related informational panels.

West Homer Elementary School

995 Soundview Ave.

Student work

5-7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

May 6th, 5 – 7 p.m., First Friday Opening Reception

West Homer Elementary features the installation of its school-wide tile project and celebratesstudent artwork. Many pieces will include a QR code that can be scanned by a cell phone or tablet. This will allow the guests to intimately connect with students by listening to them read their artist’s statements.