Homer, Alaska – Painter Lynn Larsen and Jenny Nakao exhibit at Bunnell Street Arts Center during the month of September. The exhibit opens on First Friday, September 5th from 5-7pm with artist talks at 6pm, and closes October 1, 2025.

Lynn Larsen Statement:

“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 linear an understanding and does not capture the experience of sitting before a mountain and looking. All time feels present when silently looking at a mountain; all past and all future become one in the moment.

In my paintings of mountains of the Arctic I hope to show the geological history, the linear history, and simultaneously this feeling that “takes one to another place” and feels like all time. The two, one cerebral and one spiritual, are paradoxical, yet both intertwine and drive me to paint the Arctic land in hopes of better understanding time.

Paintings in this exhibit are from areas near the Ivishak, Echooka, and Juniper drainages in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

Jenny Nakao Statement:

“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.

Currently, I create functional zoomorphic wheel-thrown forms inspired by south-central Alaskan wildlife and my commercial fishing summers. Each species, like a passing neighbor, is captured through characteristic clues that reveal identities with use and movement, creating an element of surprise and curiosity. As a tactile person, functionality is key, incorporating touch for experiential learning and as a metaphor for our prudent connection to nature, highlighting symbiotic relationships.

My process celebrates an infatuation with clay and a playful exploration of form, function, and design. Soft, wheel-thrown forms are manipulated for new shapes and textures. Carved patterns invite exploration. This playful making invites users to discover bigger pictures and smaller details in their own interpretations. Fire forever captures these moments as clay transforms into stone, and glazes melt into each other, revealing their liquid states. It’s an ancient human experience connecting to earthly elements for sharing nourishment, stories, and ritual.”