Thanks for checking out This Thing We Call the Ocean!
Running from June 21st - July 6th
A portion of "This Thing We Call the Ocean," by artist Stephen Lawrie, and curated by Maite Lorente, was created during a residency at Sea Pony Farm. Sea Pony Farm is Sitka Conservation Society's remote creative retreat and field station. To help foster more creations like this, consider making a donation to support future artist residencies at Sea Pony Farm. Your support helps grow a space where art, stewardship, and community unites.
To learn more about Sea Pony Farm click HERE.
To Inquire about purchasing Stephen's works or to get in touch with the artist visit his website HERE.
Full Digital Showing coming soon!
About the Show
Sitka’s iconic Pioneer Bar—long known as the storytelling sanctuary of the town’s local fishermen—is trading its historic wall décor temporarily for something new: a deeply personal collection of paintings titled "This Thing We Call the Ocean." The exhibit captures the soul of commercial fishing and the people who live by the tides. It’s a visual homage to our fisheries, our community, and the stewardship that ties it all together.
As the first art show ever held at the Pioneer Bar, the transformation is more than aesthetic—it’s a community reflection. It's the perfect venue to challenge assumptions, blur lines, and bring together people who may not usually cross paths. The show invites residents and visitors alike to reflect on our relationship with the ocean and to build a stronger community based around our shared dependence on a wild and healthy natural environment and the economic and cultural value it has for our community. Through rich visuals and familiar faces, this show serves to bridge art, conservation, and the lives and livelihoods of our fishing community that are so intertwined with ocean stewardship.
Over time, fishermen have become unlikely, yet essential stewards of the ocean—relying on its health and vitality for their own livelihood. This exhibit honors that evolving relationship, emphasizing the care, knowledge, and responsibility embedded in modern commercial fishing culture.
A portion of the artwork was created at Sea Pony Farm, Sitka Conservation Society’s remote creative retreat and field station nestled within the Tongass National Forest. There, surrounded by wild coastlines and ancient forests, the artist found space to explore stewardship through a painter’s lens. The intention behind this work is not only to reflect on our deep connection to the ocean but also to inspire deeper advocacy for this place.
More than an art exhibit, This Thing We Call the Ocean is a call to conversation: a space where visitors and locals, artists and anglers, environmentalists and skeptics can find common ground. It’s a reminder that our future—like our past—is shaped by this thing we call the ocean.
And when the artwork is taken down, the historic wall returns—with new meaning, and perhaps, sharper eyes from those who sit within.