Art Seen: Sip up the sights — Coffee shops brew up rich art offerings

Work by clients of Hope Community Resources is on display in the conference room of Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna.

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

The coffee shops around Soldotna have an interesting variety of art offerings, ranging from the very traditional Alaskana paintings of Jenny Johnson and John Winters to fiber and metal work from Jan Wallace, and all the way to delightful masks and collages created during an art residency by Patti Mitchell with clients of Hope Community Resources. Mugz Coffee Lounge was closed when I stopped by, but I understand they have some nice watercolors

on display.

Art Seen: Eyes for the dramatic — Photographer’s guild show highlights scenes worth seeing

“Adobe” by Pat Lytle

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

Being an artist is a tricky sort of thing. One has to be sensitive enough to one’s surroundings to capture and glean some meaning from the surrounding world. And if those discoveries are ever to have any impact, they must be shared and, in some way, analyzed. Photo guilds are a great way to not only get inspired and motivated, they can provide safe forums for critiquing work and encouraging growth of its members.

The Kenai Peninsula Photographer’s Guild has been active in this area for a long time, and has held strong as an entity, showing often and consistently welcoming newcomers. Their current show on the walls at Cottonwood Center on Marydale in Soldotna is a somewhat limited but lovely range of styles, and it is obvious that the beauty of this area is the driving force for most of the imagery.

Tracie Howard’s “Happy Feet” and Rick Cupp’s “Wonderland Awaits” are really the only two that move anywhere into abstraction, and they are both rich with elements to look for and into.

“Creamers Dairy in Fairbanks” by Genevieve Klebba

Creative commerce

By Jenny Neyman

A hopeful bidder proposes to trade a family portrait photography shoot for this clay platter by Dinah Mahan in the third annual Barter/Trade show at Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna.

Redoubt Reporter

The art show on display at Kaladi Brothers Coffee on the Sterling Highway in Soldotna this month has an intuitive, though unusual, premise — it takes creativity to make art, so why not invite creativity to distribute it?

None of the pieces are for sale. But that’s not the unusual part. It’s not irregular to see an “NFS” notation on a piece of artwork in a gallery display, denoting that the piece is not for sale, perhaps because the artist finds it too precious to part with, or it already is promised elsewhere.

In this case, though there are no prices listed for any of the items in the show, all the participating artists hope that their work goes home with an interested viewer. They just won’t take money for the transaction.

No amount of identification will make checks acceptable here. Credit cards also are verboten. Even cold, hard cash will get a cold shoulder.

The artists spent their time, talents, training and creativity in making their pieces, and they want “buyers” to spend something other than money to “purchase” them.

This is the Barter/Trade Show, where all the art is available to own, and just about anything but money goes as a means of currency.“We were interested in what people would be willing to trade for art if money weren’t involved. Also, just being in Alaska, where everything is more barter and trade, it was more of an experiment to see if it would work for art, too,” said Annette Beck, who organized the art show with Dinah Mahan.

Beck and Mahan were viewing a showing of local artist Connie Goltz’s work years ago. Someone had written a note offering to trade a bag of potatoes for one of Goltz’s pieces.

“And she said, ‘Sure. Why not?’” Beck said.

Art Seen: Rose-colored watercolored views

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“Last Dance” by Kathryn Thomas Joyce.

When I head to a juried watercolor exhibit, I am always wishing there will be something different and dangerous to greet me, but the medium itself lends itself more to serene and quiet work, and there are usually few surprises to be had. But I am almost always impressed with the level of discipline I see from the watercolorists of this area, especially because of the sheer difficulty of this medium.

In a piece like “Let’s Dance,” by Kathryn Thomas Joyce, my hope is renewed. Joyce has managed to make her painting both pattern and portrait. Wispy red fireweed wiggles this way and that and almost merges with the rich and luminous background. It is generally best to let a certain amount of the paper remain untouched by paint so that the image doesn’t get muddied, but this painting is so skillfully subtle it breaks those rules. The muted application is perfect for the enticing effect, and I really would change nothing about it.

Art Seen: Message by design — Art show tackles social issues

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“Deposit” by Steve Schoonmaker.

The back room at the Kenai Fine Arts Center, dubbed Gallery Too, has an interesting grouping of art on display dealing with various social issues. Kenai Peninsula College students of varying ages took on the task, and while they don’t address some of the really huge hot-button topics (probably best in a small town like Kenai, I suppose), they certainly have put their hearts and creativity into expressing concern over an assortment of issues.

Art Seen: Wild for art — Journal entries edited into new works at KPC

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photos courtesy of Zirrus VanDevere. Artist Dymphna De Wild and art department chair Celia Anderson hang De Wild’s work at the Gary L. Freeburg Gallery at Kenai Peninsula College. The show is on display through Nov. 12.

Dymphna De Wild has an exhibit currently up at Gary L. Freeburg Gallery at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. She was introduced to the college by Freeburg, who has worked with her on the East Coast and was impressed with her artwork.

This particular exhibit comprises unframed original drawings and prints made from journal entries, as well as from a mixed-media piece. The work is all on sturdy, naturally deckled paper and hangs well with T pins rather than framing.

Artwork by Dymphna De Wild is on display at KPC.

De Wild more often has full installations with varying sizes of sculptures in her exhibits, generally filling the entire space with fanciful and exotic shapes, textures and hues. Though I wouldn’t necessarily compare her work to Tim Burton’s, there is something about the way she approaches her art that makes me think of the work I’ve seen from him.

In an exhibit a couple years ago at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, I was able to peruse room after room of Burton’s creations, beginning chronologically with his very first doodles and filmmaking from when he was still in grade school. There was an integrity and coherence to everything he did and even the early work was identifiable as specifically his creation.

Art Seen: Art abounds — Fall brings bounty of new views

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photography by Joe Kashi, Sue Biggs, William Heath and Rick Cupp is on display as part of the “Equinox” exhibition at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center.

Summer must be over, because there is an abundance of art-related events occurring, and lots to see around town again. Just finishing exhibiting at Odie’s Deli, Kelsi Staton has a series of simple graphics painted on panels that are really quaint and wonderful.  Telephones, bicycles, airplanes and fishing poles become her fanciful subjects, drawn with a confident line — that never disconnects from the panel until she has finished drawing — and then colored meticulously. They resemble children’s illustrations, but then seem to have a very adult feel, as well.

Traci Knutson’s exhibit is also just finishing up at the Kaladi Brothers on the Sterling Highway, where she offers us a body of work depicting mostly show dogs she has trained. Her Polaroid

“Day’s Final Hurrah” by Sue Biggs.

emulsion transfers are the most interesting to me, especially when she has added watercolor in a delicate complement to the photo. She also presents some very careful drawings and paintings to round out the theme.

Claire Johnson is a teenager who lives in a small community in Kasilof and had a good number of pieces up at the Kenai River Brewing Co. for at least a couple months. It is obvious that she loves to put color to paper, and one can readily see her active mind informing her subject choices. The work is simultaneously self-examining and self-rejoicing, and it is encouraging to see such joy and curiosity spill out the ends of brushes and pens in the hands of a young person.

Art Seen: Faculties of fine art — New KPC show puts professors’ work on display

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“Rear Seat Passenger” by William Heath.

There is a small but strong exhibit by faculty currently at the Gary L. Freeburg Gallery at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus, and it is interesting to note some of the similarities and differences woven through the work done by such very different artists.

Jean Steele’s entry is a ceramic teapot that really does look like “Earth from Space,” and Taz Tally has included a running video of shots taken during the construction of a community playground in Homer.

The first section is a time lapse of the playground being built, and then there are still images gathered from four different photographers on the scene, as well as video clips of the opening event.

Art Seen: Harvest good deals on fine art

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“Halibut Bowl” by Laura Faeo is part of the “Harvest Art Exhibit” on display at the Kenai Fine Arts Center in advance of the Harvest Art Auction on Sept. 28.

Fall is in the air, and it is time again to do a number of wonderful things — see a variety of art in one place, secure a piece or two of that art for ridiculously good prices, and help out the arts community by supporting an institution that has as its main goal the support of our local artists.

The 13th annual Harvest Art Auction will occur Sept. 28 this year, and the art that’s been donated to the cause is on view at the Kenai Fine Arts Center until the event.

Art Seen: Revising self — Artists recycle imagery, identities in joint show

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

Kathryn Zerbe and one of her mixed-media masks, which are on display in September at Kaladi Brothers on Kobuk.

It is good for an active artist to have an exhibit scheduled in the near future, as it tends to motivate toward production and push beyond concept. Most artists I know are continually pondering bodies of work or new avenues to explore with their art, and even a slot at a local coffee shop can be enough to set an awful lot of creativity in motion.

I’ve been wanting to do a series of portraits from live sittings and interesting photographs for years, and I truly thought it was finally time to do so when I agreed to take the September opening at the Kaladi Brothers on Kobuk Street in Soldotna. As they say, “Life is what happens when we are making other plans,” and I found that illness from a debilitating parasite, and then a closure of my gallery, took up any of the time that might have been used in such a way.

Plan B included a significantly less-strenuous project, involving repurposed photographic panels and some 30-year-old glossy paint meant for touching up metal frames that I’ve been considering busting out for about 20 of those years. In truth, very little of what I choose to do with my art is arbitrary. The panels were part of another coffee shop exhibit that documented for me a pivot point in my life, and the paint I added feels like journal entries describing the freedom, joy and trials I’ve experienced since that critical time. Two of the matted and framed photos from that original series are included, displaying the textural, dirty and archetypal underbelly pipes of Brooklyn.

Art Seen: Something to say — Rowley mines Africa trip for imagery in art show

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoube Reporter

Artwork by Claire Rowley is on display at Odie’s Deli in Soldotna this month. Rowley uses mixed media to explore imagery from her time spent volunteering in Africa.

I was pleased to find Claire M. Rowley’s works at Odie’s Deli again recently (she has shown her work at Odie’s many times in the past), as she has something new to say to the world.

Rowley is an artist concerned with both form and function. She loves the mediums with which she works, and she is intent on saying important things with her work. The body of work was inspired by time she spent in South Africa, and the pieces are lighthearted enough to be appropriate for a coffee shop, but have substance beyond what you typically find in those venues.

There are no tags with the art, but the accompanying write-up states, “In the beginning of 2011, I spent about seven months in South Africa and Sierra Leone working on the world’s largest nonprofit hospital ship, the HMS Africa Mercy. If I were to say that I came back a different person, that would be putting it mildly. In seven months I saw some of the most spectacular things, but also some of the most horrific things I may ever see.

“Most of the paintings that are here at Odie’s are part of a series I am doing about my time in Africa, and about my readjustments into the culture of America. This selection from that series has been done with a variety of mixed media, including spray paint, acrylic, and fabric surface design. I hope that you enjoy what you see and remember just how blessed we are.”

Art Seen: Clay on display

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“Curly Bowl,” by Yvonne Leutwyler, is one of the pieces on display this month at the Kenai Fine Arts Center as part of the annual “Clay on Display” show.

The potters are at it again, showing off their many talents in the annual “Clay on Display” exhibition at the Kenai Fine Arts Center. We also get a sneak preview of some of the already completed bowls for the popular Kenai Peninsula Food Bank Soup Supper fundraiser where you get a handmade bowl from a local artist and then get to fill it with donated soups at the fundraising event.

The hand-built pieces capture my attention most this year, but Libby Berezin has some well-crafted wheel-thrown work with pastel rainbow colors that are awfully dazzling.

Charlie LaForge offers a sophisticated and gorgeous cookie jar, and Jan Steele’s “Speckled Vase” was also

“Mirriam” by Ida Cockcroft. “Clay on Display” is being shown in conjunction with a photography exhibition by Jerry Flippin through August at the Kenai Fine Arts Center.

thrown, into a tight and almost teardrop shape that gives the piece both a sense of polish and suggestions of objects found in nature.

Steele has a number of really fine works in this show (though I am resisting making the comment that she basically Steeles the show), most of them hand-built with thin slabs of clay lovingly layered into large vessel shapes glazed in dark brown. My favorite of these is a large pitcher that has an abundance of lighter glazing on the inside of the wide lip, and a low, curvy handle that begs to be “handled.” She also has a wonderful small but tall blue vase that looks like a combination of an archeological find and a Dr. Seuss house.