BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG

STAFF WRITER

Although the focus of the art scene this weekend is the annual Homer Council on the Arts Nutcracker Faire, featuring original arts and crafts by dozens of Alaska artists, shows also open at two galleries for First Friday. 

At the Fireweed Gallery, one of Homer’s hardest working artists, Dan Coe, shows his “plaks,” art painted on wood. With his custom, handpainted signs on many buildings around town, Coe might be one of Homer’s most visible artists. As he showed with his fireweed mural on the Driftwood RV Campground fence in Old Town, Coe also paints original art. See his work in “Art Through the Back Door at the Fireweed Gallery.

Ten artists with AlaskaWax warm up the art scene with their encaustic paintings. The ancient technique of painting with molten wax and pigment has undergone a revival in Alaska and the United States. Encaustics combines techniques of painting with that of sculpture, for the media can combine other media like paper images and natural objects in collage, and can also be manipulated using heat guns and torches. The result is art rich in texture and layers that also is durable and enduring.

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