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.

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.”

Lynn Larsen bio: Fairbanks-based artist Lynn Larsen, raised in Arcata, California, developed a love for the outdoors early on. After earning a B.A. in art from San Diego State University and a teaching credential from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, she taught art and English in California and London for many years. A 1988 trip to the Brooks Range profoundly influenced her art, leading her to paint landscapes. She continued to visit the Brooks Range annually, purchasing land for a cabin in 1998. After retiring in 2009, she moved back to Alaska to paint full-time. Today, she and her partner, Ron Yarnell, continue to visit their Brooks Range cabin and the Arctic Refuge, where she finds inspiration for her mountain paintings.

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.”

Jenny Nakao bio: Jenny Nakao is a Japanese-American ceramic artist, instructor, and commercial fisherwoman based in south-central Alaska. She explores functional ceramics with playfulness and perspective. After earning her B.F.A. in Ceramics in 2007 and teaching English in South Korea for five years, she settled in Alaska in 2013. Since then, she has completed a pottery apprenticeship, received a grant for promoting ceramic education, attended residencies. She participates in Seward Artists in Schools, and teaches community pottery classes from her Seward home studio.