Artist Talks @ Bunnell

“Salmon are iconic. They are sacred. They are keystone beings. Salmon are the thread that stitches together land and ocean, forests, wetlands and rivers of clean cold water,  whales, bears, marine mammals, birds and other fish, peoples and cultures, customs and traditions, identity, and ways of life. more.

“Alutiiq cosmology is built on the belief that all things, living and inanimate are sentient and that people are equal members of a system that is built on reciprocity and kinship. My ancestors understood there is but a thin veil between the natural world and the spiritual world and deeply valued their relationship with other living beings. more.

Leslie M. Robertson – “My altered books are rooted in mixed media and experimentation, shaped by my ongoing relationship with nature and the materials themselves. I collect found objects from the environment, recycling bins, and pieces of my own past art work. Each piece carries traces of time, memory, and transformation. The process is immersive and slow. The materials guide my decisions on what...

Katelin Hiller – “I make drawings that regard the environment as a living shrine. They are made from mixed materials applied in many layers onto boards from white spruce trees that grew near where I live. The trees had a life before I made drawings on them, they contributed to the atmosphere and everything here. I view, touch, inhale, and ingest the boreal forest so it can express itself through m...

Debra Lowney – “I am a self taught wood sculptor who strives to create innovative art that inspires, intrigues, and challenges the viewer. I’m drawn to landscapes with a focus on drawing attention to the environmental changes taking place and hopefully tempt the viewer to contemplate this change. Wood, and its vulnerability in landscapes are a bit of a metaphor for environmental change. The majori...

“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 cons...

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 hel...

“I discovered the book “Alaskan Igloo Tales” (c. 1974, illustrations by G. Agupuk) years ago while working in Nome, AK’s Indian Education Art and Culture Program. At that time, the stories in this book felt strange and distant from modern Native culture and experience. My self-studies in myth, history, Native cultures, and spirituality renewed my interest in the fascinating and inspiring stories i...

Just Listen “I’ve come to believe in the river, where we are most aligned with flow. Responding to each turn and turbulence with a measure of calm. It requires space for attention. It requires listening. This selection of works is the result of listening. Of guided intuition. The works have differing origins. For some, it began with first light skipping across the snow. Or it was pangs of distant...

“I remember the first summer I noticed the trees shriveling, turning grey, eaten from the inside out. The air was hot and the rain never came. The swing tree and the joy it brought, lives now only in my mind. more.

An installation and studio artist from Fairbanks, Tamara Wilson exhibits  “Street Lamp” for the month of December at Bunnell Street Arts Center. The exhibit opens on first Friday, December 5th from 5-7pm with an artist talk at 6pm. Artist Statement: “Creatures created from a place of wonder, wander, joy, and grief. As my work shifts away from deciphering my curiosity of domestic space, I have beco...

This year’s exhibit represents 137 works by 68 artist members from Alaska and beyond. Professional development through annual exhibition opportunities is heart-centered Mission work. Thank you to the new and renewing artist members of this year! more

“As I engage with the variety of communities across Alaska through my craft as a weaver I hope to share this knowledge, joy and passion through a series of weaving demonstrations, speaking engagements as well as weaving workshops. It’s my hope.. to engage with the community by sharing my art and craft in as many ways as possible.” – Laine Rinehart

“Raven Stole the Stars, Raven Stole My Heart is a collection of prints that I have created through my process of self reflection and growth. I am Denaakk’e Koyukon Athabaskan and Lingít, more specifically Raven/ Dog Salmon clan or sukteeneidí. My show title reflects a well known Tlingit story about Raven stealing the sun; in the context of Raven stealing my heart, it is meant to represent myself a...

“Mountains of bare rock, like those on the north side of the Brooks Range, interest me, since devoid of trees, the mountains show their geological journey. In my paintings I always have tried to be true to the land’s geological story, showing the layers and shapes of rocks as they exist today. But the geological history—dating of layers, push of plates, classifying of rocks and minerals—is too lin...

“My work embodies playfulness, communicating meaning through perspective and  relationships. Inspired by interconnected environments and organisms, my pieces reveal stories through interaction—a decoration under a handle, inside a vessel, or clues on the bottom. My functional vessels encourage use, echoing a message of reciprocity with nature: care for it, and it will nourish us." more

“There are many things that I am inspired by: old New England tobacco barns, the color of honey, glacial ice, Sung Dynasty pottery, Native Alaskan ivory bird carvings, children’s book illustrators such as Harrison Cady, Tasha Tudor and Jerry Pinkney, Danish furniture, cooking, dodo birds, redpolls,  the work of French automobile body designers the 1930s and 40s such as Gabriel Voisin and Jacques S...

“In the past year, I have moved between two vastly different environments – a woodworking fellowship in urban Philadelphia and my home studio outside of Fairbanks – and been imprinted with their unique visual energies and abundant sound. Recent pieces convey the shaking of elevated trains, the buzz of insects and heat rising from a weed-infested ditch, urban demolition and construction, endless tr...

“My pottery is made to be used and enjoyed in the home, and each piece is deeply inspired by the natural world. My love for nature began in my adolescence, working at a local Michigan nature preserve—a formative experience that continues to shape my creative vision. To this day, I spend countless hours observing animals, studying plants, and exploring geology, drawing endless inspiration from the...

"My paintings reflect the tenacity of an Alaskan summer, autumn’s brilliant demise, winter’s seemingly impossible unraveling, and the amazements of spring. This body of work emphasizes the endless details, changing seasons, and everyday beauty here in the North.” more.

“My creativity and life stories are expressed with coastal marine themes that capture the wild beauty of my home, Alaska. Encaustic is my material of choice – a blend of beeswax, damar crystals and pigment – often using charts, scraps of paper and found objects that are embedded in the wax medium. I draw upon first-hand experiences of fishing, its dangers and excitement." more.

“Every time I pick up a limpet shell I marvel at its compact form with its subtle shifting curves and endless variety of striations and ribs. Their color, pattern and textures layered in an inimitable way that strains my greedy eyes.  I love to pinch them out of clay and this activity brings me great pleasure.  The barnacle on the other hand populates surfaces with a multitude of jagged and cluste...

A guided conversation with Megan Murphy and collaborators Ilarion (Kuuyux) Merculieff and Brianna Lee, for the book release of The Inner Garden. About the book: The Inner Garden is a channeled guidebook and vividly-illustrated card deck that offers a personalized map to learn more about yourself and your gifts so that you can navigate and address your particular needs with confidence for the rest...

"When I received the invitation from Megan Murphy to collaborate on creating the images for this book, "The Inner Garden," I was both honored and nervous to accept the offer. As a working mother, artmaking had become less and less a priority in my life. Simultaneously, I began to feel like I was losing my artist identity and felt shame, even embarrassment, when referring to myself as an artist. Me...

“The space we knew as our subsistence camp near Nome, Alaska, has been altered by climate change and was washed away by Typhoon Merbok. This work connects past, present, and future Inupiat and records our stories from fish camp, recording what climate change hasn’t erased – our ties to each other and the memories of place.” more...