Good Times at Art Shop Gallery, Homer
The staff from the Art Shop Gallery watching Don Jose’s Mexican Food employee make guacamole at the table. We ate two servings before dinner, slightly spicy, yum!
I can’t remember how long I’ve been making the annual pilgrimage to Homer’s Art Shop Gallery for a summer show, it could be fifteen maybe eighteen years or more. Every visit is a party. I meet old friends, friends of friends, my San Diego cousin’s next door neighbor, the best friend of the man who helped us build our first home in Lakeside, California, forty years ago, and on, and on, and on. It seems like Homer is the designated meeting place for all U.S. travelers. The Art Shop is laid back, informal, with a comfy sofa in the upstairs gallery where the guest artist resides and has never known a stranger. Everyone parts as a friend and has shared their Alaska story. And at the end of the day the staff has always been treated to dinner by the owners, first by Wes and Karin Marks and now by Karin alone. We all miss Wesley who died almost four years ago, and the evening never passes without stories about his passionate political views and generosity. Now Karin carries the torch, and does it with dignity and class. This is a first-rate gallery and should be on everyone’s do-not-miss list.
Kudos to the Art Shop gang, I love you!
Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist