Homer youth artist Laney Martushev is beginning to receive a public appreciation of the artwork she creates in Homer.

The 10th grade student has two pieces in the Jubilee! show hosted at the Homer Council on the Arts. She had two pieces recently displayed in Juneau for the annual Art in the Capitol exhibit that collects art from students around the state with her Connections Homeschooling program and was an artist requested to create a painting of a harlequin duck that will be on display at Land’s End when the 2024 Shorebird Festival opens.

These are the first contests to recognize her art.

“This is really the first year I’ve started putting my art out there for other people to see it,” Martushev said.

Melanie Dufour is the coordinator for the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival and asked Martushev if she wanted to submit a piece of art this year. Dufour said they take submissions from approximately 30 artists who are provided with a 6×6 inch canvas. Artists can submit something with a theme related to the festival.

Other artists come from calls to the local galleries or people who have submitted something in the past. That festival opens May 3.

The Juneau event Art in the Capitol displays work by Alaska elementary, middle and high school students from around the state. The program began in 1988 as a collaboration of the Alaska Alliance for the Arts in Education, the Alaska Department of Education and the Legislative Affairs Agency; it is currently sponsored by the Juneau Legislative Information Office.

Martushev received her certificate of award for submission of arts in February and her art returned home last week.

Images from student art from the 2024 event can be found on the legislative affairs page of the Alaska State Legislature website: https://akleg.gov/capart.php.

The images that were sent to the Capitol were created with coffee as the paint substance. Martushev received a certificate of participation for her contribution that was signed Senate President Gary Stevens and Rep. Cathy Tilton, speaker of the House.

Martushev said the pieces sent to the Capitol are more detailed than some of the art she does on a daily basis. Martushev said she also enjoys creating comic strips.

“Sometimes I really like to incorporate poetry into those and sometimes those will be more sad or scary,” she said.

Prior to the spring events this year, Martushev has created two posters for the Homer Nutcracker and new logo for last year’s sweatshirt and the poster for Breezy Berryman’s 2023 spring production of “Alice in Wonderland.”

She has helped contribute to set creations for Homer Nutcracker as well.