‘Fun with 5×7’ affords inexpensive artwork
The Homer Council on the Arts’ annual “Fun with 5×7” showcase, held in November and December, might be an artwork collector’s dream. With its give attention to inexpensive artwork no bigger than 5-inches by 7-inches, these seeking to purchase established Homer artists like Sharlene Cline, Lynn Marie Naden or Kathy Smith can buy works for lower than $200.
The present additionally affords a substitute for supply-chain careworn, poorly made client items that may not present up in time for Christmas. For as little as $25, vacation buyers can purchase authentic artwork from native creators in media from encaustics to acrylics to discovered objects. Even somebody dwelling in a tiny residence or one-room dry cabin can discover artwork sufficiently small to placed on a wall, but nonetheless bursting with expertise and creativity.
This yr’s present contains acquainted names like Dianne Spence-Chorman, Kiki Abrahamson, Jozef Pawlikowski, Michael Murray and Karen Roush, in addition to artists new to the Homer scene like Barbara Bigelow and Leah Dunn. Dunn, a Homer Excessive College junior, is also a part of a bunch of younger artists that embody college students of HCOA Artwork a la Carte lessons with Kim McNett and Ann-Margret Wimmerstedt.
Bigelow, who splits her time between Homer and Ketchikan, reveals small sculptures made out of discovered objects. One sequence, the Levon Anoroc — “Novel corona” spelled backward — got here out of the COVID-19 pandemic. One work reveals the aurora borealis.
“I was trying to express joy and the beauty of Alaska and also the idea of hope beyond this crazy pandemic,” she stated.
One other work, “Levon Anoroc Diamonds and Rust #5,” can appear to be a masks and reveals the concept of pareidolia, the place faces might be seen in objects. Bigelow stated she didn’t intend it to be a masks.
“One of the things I’ve always said is if art provokes a reaction or offends someone, then it probably has done its job as art,” she stated.
4 kids from the Kincaid household took Wimmerstedt’s encaustic class. In encaustics, artists use a medium manufactured from beeswax and damar, a tree resin, combined with pigmented wax. The wax can be utilized like paint, however it additionally might be put down in thick layers after which melted with a blowtorch or a warmth gun. A heated palette like an electrical frying pan retains the wax fluid.
Isaiah Jane Kincaid, age 10, stated her instructor at Fireweed Academy, Carly Garay, inspired her and her siblings to take the category. Isaiah Jane stated she preferred how encaustics might be forgiving.
“If you put too much wax on it, you can easily scrape it off and it would dry really fast,” she stated.
For her work within the present, Isaiah Jane added a paper picture of a butterfly — a collage method that additionally might be performed in encaustics.
Ames Immanuel Kincaid, 12, explored one other method: melting the media.
“If you put your painting vertically and horizontally, it will drip down. That’s what I did with mine.”
Isaiah Jane’s twin, Honor Kincaid, additionally took Wimmerstedt’s class, as did Haddie Kincaid, age 8.
“I learned that you can put anything on it and it really doesn’t mess it up,” she stated. “You can scrape it off and add more layers. I put brown on it and I really didn’t like it. I put pink on it after it dried.”
Haddie stated she discovered how an encaustic portray might be added to in layers.
“If you mess up, it’s not that bad. I messed up and I did my wax for the texture,” she stated. “It dripped in a spot I didn’t like. I made something pretty out of it and made a line where my mistake was.”
Dunn, 16, remembered taking artwork lessons at HCOA when she was youthful. Most just lately she has been taking artwork lessons with Alayne Teter at Homer Excessive College. She beforehand confirmed work in HCOA’s members solely exhibit. One portray within the 5×7 present, “Birch Grove in Autumn,” is a standard Alaska panorama, however one other portray, “Solitary,” has a extra fantastical theme. It reveals a home sitting on a cone-shaped slab of earth drifting among the many clouds or probably an ice-choked sea.
“That one was kind of — I thought it looked kind of cool,” Dunn stated.
Dunn additionally does some sculpture, like carving boats out of cottonwood bark, a way she discovered from her father, picket boat builder Dick Dunn.
Dunn stated she didn’t know if she needed to pursue a profession within the arts.
“It’s a possibility, I probably will keep painting,” she stated.
“Fun with 5×7” reveals by Dec. 22 and might be seen throughout common gallery hours from 1-5 p.m., Monday-Friday. COVID-19 security restrictions apply, and face masks are required.
Attain Michael Armstrong at marstrong@homernews.com.
Lynn Marie Naden’s “Persephone’s Flowers” is among the works exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Karen Roush’s “Moment to Moment” is among the works exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Ames Immanuel Kincaid’s “No Gravity” is among the work exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Isaiah Jane Kincaid’s “Butterfly Blues” is among the work exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Dianne Spence-Chorman’s “Saw-Whet Owl” is among the works exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Sharlene Cline’s “Black-capped Chickadee and Holly” is among the works exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Leah Dunn’s “Birch Grove in Autumn” is among the works exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Leah Dunn’s “Solitary” is among the works exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Kiki Abrahamson’s “Cutleaf Birch” is among the works exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Barbara Bigelow’s “Levon Anoroc Diamonds and Rust #5” is among the work exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Barbara Bigelow’s “Levon Anoroc Diamonds and Rust #5” is among the work exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
Jozef Pawlikowski’s “Homer Harbor” is among the works exhibiting within the Homer Council on the Arts “Fun wtih 5×7” present by Dec. 22, 2021, on the gallery in Homer, Alaska. (Photograph by Michael Armstrong/Homer Information)
The scholar artists within the Kincaid household pose for a photograph. From left to proper are Isaiah Jane, Honor, Haddie Lee and Ames Kincaid. (Photograph by R. Christopher Kincaid)
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