Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

‘Studios’ magazine featured four Vashon artists and their studios in its Summer  edition. My studio was chosen as the cover.  The following is how I describe my present creative space. I am a Print, Paint and Assemblage artist.  The images I make have their origin in story. The story may be personally relevant but often falls within the realm of myth.  The interpretation of myth and visual exploration of story is informed by and evolves in my approach to Monotype print.   I think of Monotype as a lively conversation of knife with paper, ink with plate, and paper and plate with press.  The exploration of these simple materials, mediums and tools provide an exciting way to discover imagery that I may subsequently interpret in the more traditional medium of oil on canvas or include as critical components of my assemblage work. In addition to my press work I am currently exploring another Monotype process utilizing mild steel plates that are composed, cut and rusted to muslin.

'Saqqara, Oil on Panel, Gold Leaf, 48x36 in. In the Greco Roman Egyptian region known as Fayum or el Faiyum, the Egyptian cult of the dead inspired unique portraits that were bound to the mummified body.  As such they became by definition objects of worship.  Each was an intimate and symbolic part of the mummy with which it was found.  The portraits were regarded not just as representations but as the immortal surrogates of the dead.  Men were identified with the god Osiris and women with the god Isis. The mummies were considered to be essential for life after death according to Egyptian rituals and the portraits were sourced in style by the naturalistic traditions of Greece. The Faiyum portraits are thought to have been painted from ‘sittings’ done during the youth of the subject and kept in the subject’s home until death, when the were placed on and bound into the mummy as the face or soul of of the deceased. The image (above) is my contemporary interpretation of a s