By Jacqueline McDonough

The snow is retreating, the cranes are calling, and there is even a rumor of the occasional crocus rearing its purple head along warm south-facing walls in town. But if your outlook on the world is stuck in a monochromatic mud puddle, do yourself a favor and take in the vivid technicolor offerings available this First Friday. Local art this month will bring you as far afield as the mountains of Nepal or as close as the wildflowers soon to bloom on the Spit.


Art Shop Gallery

202 W. Pioneer Ave.

Thirtieth Annual Spring Show by the Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society

Opening Reception 5 to 7 p.m.


Come see new original watercolors by members of the Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society, as well as a collaborative piece by 12 individual artists that brings summer to life in all its lupine glory.


Bunnell Street Arts Center

106 W. Bunnell Ave.

“What Color Blue” by featured artist Oceana Wills, plus ongoing work by Artist in Residence Tina Konec

Opening Reception 5 to 7 p.m., artist talk 6 p.m.


Local artist Oceana Wills has long been inspired by the ocean and spent many summers on it as a deckhand in the commercial salmon fisheries. Her earlier work centers women in the fishing industry and imagines mermaid life parallel to life on land. She spends summer on land these days, and her art is inspired by the animals, rocks, plants, people and landscapes of her hometown, Homer. Wills’ primary medium is gouache paint on clay board panels (a smooth archival surface) or on paper. She also works in acrylic, pen and embroidery and is learning to sew. 


There will also be an opportunity to hear from Tina Konec, a visual artist from Slovenia, who is Artist in Residence at Bunnell through the European Union’s Transatlantic Rising Stars Project. In residence since April 9, Konec has been creating new work and collaborating with local Homer artist Carla Klinker. 


Artist Statement by Oceana Wills

“This body of work takes place locally in the landscapes of the Kachemak Bay area, among the plants and animals we share space with. It contains many of the ideas and themes I continue to explore in my art: Relationships to nature, community, and self, appreciation of the ordinary and the beauty found anywhere, acknowledgment of anxieties, sorrows, and unknowns, expressions of holding and being held. Also included is playfulness and curiosity as I followed what most excited me creatively. I let myself embrace eclectic concepts and imagery with trust that the work would fit together through pattern, color, and possibility of evocation. I often approach painting like collage, pulling observational and imagined images together with the question of how they relate. This exhibit offers a question that comes to mind almost daily — what color blue on horizon, on cloud bottom, on coffee mug, water jug, on the palette. Blue is open to interpretation, an invitation to notice.”


Artist Statement by Tina Konec

“For more than a decade, drawing has been central to my artistic practice. Working

with pencil and black ink, I build dense structures of lines that gradually form fragments

of coniferous branches. The process itself is essential to my work and often takes on a

meditative quality, unfolding through repetition, rhythm, and sustained attention.

Nature holds a particular significance for me as a constant source of inspiration. The

recurring motif of coniferous branches originates in the landscape of my home

environment, where such trees are abundant. In my work, this natural form becomes a

universal structure through which broader reflections on life, perception, and the many forms emerging from nature are revealed.”


The Dean Gallery

40374 Waterman Road

New art by Jeffrey Dean

Opening Reception 5 to 7 p.m.


Stop by this family-owned gallery to see Jeffrey Dean’s “Salmon Stream Table.” The 3-foot-by-9-foot coffee table is made from curved black cherry boards and features a heat-colored salmon stream depicting the life cycle of salmon. You also can see new heat-colored steel pieces in a variety of sizes and visit the studio to see progress on his current commissions: a stainless steel and rusted steel garden piece of a moose in the willow patch and a large stained-wood and heat-colored steel rendition of the SVT Health and Wellness logo for its new reception area.


The gallery also features a diverse collection of contemporary Alaska art by M’fanwy, Ranja and Jeffrey Dean, from significant focal-point wood-and-metal wall art to bronze sculptures, intricately carved wood panels and specialty prints on wood, metal, and paper. 


Grace Ridge Brewing

870 Smoky Bay Way

Paintings by Michelle Morton

Opening Reception 5 to 7 p.m.


Artist Statement

“In my acrylic paintings, I explore the intersection of color, line and form. Drawing from nature — especially from trees and coastal landscapes — I weave details with a sense of movement. I love bright colours and try to integrate as many different colours in my work as possible. This series is a study in balance between the real and the imagined, the serene and the intricate.”


Homer Council on the Arts

355 W. Pioneer Ave.

“The Misfit,” photography and new multimedia collage by Corrina Pariyar

Opening Reception 5 to 7 p.m.


Artist Statement

“The Misfit is predominantly a show of collage work from 2026. The rest is a spectrum of photography from nearly a decade of practice in Nalanda Miksang Contemplative Photography. Each photo is a pure moment, a flash of my perception, a way of seeing the world.


“Nalanda Miksang literally translates in Tibetan to ‘Good Eye.’ It is a practice of seeing the world as it is. It is a practice I hope to bring to Homer as a teacher myself after I finish my teacher training with renowned teachers Miriam Hall and John McQuade.


“I hope my offering of work is more than beautiful for you to witness; I hope it tastes and feels good and makes you giggle. There are butts and bad words and grief, too.”


Corrina Pariyar, XOCO, is an abstract expressionist, a misfit explorer of the multi-media collage. She is a spiritual abolitionist, a writer exploring both mother and widowhoods. She is drawn towards the deities, death, and dreams, truth and love.


HCOA at South Peninsula Hospital

4300 Bartlett St.

“A Landscape of Wild Mystery” by Sky Cady

No opening reception


Homer photographer Cady’s collection of Alaska landscapes printed on vinyl and aluminum will continue to grace the halls of South Peninsula Hospital through June 1.


Artist Statement

“Alaska landscapes are a small window into the rugged, wild and untamed nature of the human soul. My soul. Longs for freedom. Longs for adventure. In the drum of daily life we often buzz along our routines with only hiccups of joy. But when I look at this kind of creation. This kind of beauty. At this kind of raw power and strangeness displayed in the unfiltered colors of the wildland, my heart leaps with awe. Because I am overcome with my own inability to comprehend the complexity and undiscovered mystery of what’s out there behind that mountain, down that crevasse, behind that willow grove, under that tussock, 4 foot under the surface of a raging canyon stream, 10 miles up a valley that only three people have traversed in the last two years. When I look at these photos and this landscape my mind and heart is stretched by what I see that is yet to be discovered. The things that no human eye has seen, or that very few have looked at. When I see something in the wild that there’s a good chance no one has thought about or looked at I feel closer to God. I connect with Him as I realize that He and I are the only ones in that moment who have experienced this. God and I have this one thing in common that no one else has. These moments staring at these photos and discovering the wild remote places of the planet bring me joy as I feel a closer connection with the one who made it all. Moments in time and space that are original and unique are hard to come by. And I believe God finds joy in me finding the moments to live with Him. That’s why I like staying off the trails. That’s why I like going into that inhospitable place — because no one else is — and there — finding something that no one else has.”


Homer Public Library

500 Hazel Ave.

“Meander to Mustang,” photography by Taz Tally and Christina Whiting

Library hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday.

Artist talk will be Thursday, May 21, 6 to 7 p.m.


Through June, the library’s Fireside Lounge is awash in the brilliant color photography of Homer photographers Taz Tally and Christina Whiting. In September 2024, Tally and Whiting joined friend and fellow community member Ed Berg on a journey to Nepal. After a three-day layover in New Delhi, India, they flew to Kathmandu to meet up with another friend, Linda Reinke-Smith, before beginning their month-long trek through the remote Mustang Valley. This was the artists’ first trek in Nepal, and their awe is evident in the sweeping vistas, striking portraits and colorful details on exhibit. Tally and Whiting feature their individual perspectives from their shared journey and express their gratitude to Ed Berg for extending the invitation to join him on this adventure.


Kachemak Bay Campus

553 E. Pioneer Ave.

New oil paintings by KBC art students

Opening Reception 5 to 7 p.m.


Students in David Pettibone’s oil painting class have been advancing their skills all semester in still lifes, portraits, and more. See what they have accomplished and support the next wave of artists. The show takes place in the Commons in Pioneer Hall.


Pratt Museum

3779 Bartlett St.

50 Years of Limited Entry: The Closing of Alaska’s Salmon Commons

Reception 4 to 6 p.m.


Catch this special seasonal exhibit before it departs in two weeks! It examines the origins and effects of the Limited Entry Program, the 1973 legislative change that sought to impose order on commercial fishing in coastal Alaska. As much a social engineering program as a conservation effort, the story of Limited Entry is both instructive and cautionary. To create this special exhibit, the Kodiak Maritime Museum conducted archival research and interviewed fishermen and fisheries policy makers. In addition, this exhibition features art, photographs and materials from the Pratt Museum’s permanent collection. It opened at the start of the year in the Main Gallery and will be on display through May 17.


Ptarmigan Arts

471 E. Pioneer Ave.

Wings Over Homer by various Alaskan artists

Opening Reception 5 to 7 p.m.


As the sun brings longer days to Homer, it brings back many of our feathered friends. Welcome home! This May, Ptarmigan Arts is honoring all of Homer’s birds with captivating art. “Wings Over Homer” will include work from Heather Mann, Gary Lyon, Diane Briggs, Ted Heuer and others. You can expect to see unique paintings, beautiful photography, quilts, textiles, woodwork and more. Beginning May 1, the gallery is on summer hours and will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.