In the back gallery of the Kenai Art Center, potter and painter Morgan Chamberlain shows off a ceramic mug. The once broken piece of pottery has been mended with a technique that embraces the beauty of imperfection.
Chamberlain’s refurbished mug is on display near a painting of singing birds — and nearly 40 more pottery pieces by Daisy Jeffords. And that’s just the back gallery, in an installation titled “Secret Garden.”
The main gallery’s “Infusion” show sports nearly 30 works, from oil paintings to glassworks to abstract pieces and more. Charlotte Coots is the center’s executive director. She says the show’s theme is left up to artist interpretation.
“A drink can be infused with an herbal extract, or a person can be infused with happiness. A meadow can be infused with a sweet aroma of flowers. Or our minds can be infused with idea and creativity,” Coots said.
A glass mosaic, the only one in the show, hangs between a sketch of an elderly woman and a painting of a moose eating popcorn. The mosaic’s 900 fragments of stained glass create an image of the artist’s son, daughter-in-law and grandson at Disneyland.
Linda Vizenor says she was able to infuse her grandson’s happiness in the mosaic.
“There’s all that love going on, and he was just the happiest little fellow for the day, many days we were there," Vizenor said. "It just fit, and it was just a labor of love.”
In the back gallery, Chamberlain says that for her, the show is about creating art for the love of it. Most of the art she’s made recently has been a way to make money. But Chamberlain says making the 12 pieces for this show reminded her of a time when she created nature-inspired art in high school.
“And I thought about how that made me feel then, and I brought that back into my art for this show," Chamberlain said. "And it has just been a joy to have all of these nature pieces that are both functional and in some things and just something to look at that makes you happy.”
The “Infusion” show is part of a juried exhibition the art center hosts every two years.
