Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Daniel Mendelsohn wrote, “The writers we absorb when we’re young bind us to them, sometimes lightly, sometimes with iron. In time, the bonds fall away, but if you look very closely you can sometimes make out the pale white groove of a faded scar, or the telltale chalky red of old rust.”  He was describing how Mary Renault’s books and her correspondence with him had influenced his life.  He could also have been describing the physical scars of a survivor of lightening strike. I first read “Fire from Heaven,” and the “The Persian Boy” when I was 15 and Renault cast a literally spell over how I viewed my adolescent world.   In many ways the characters and places she described continue to influence how I filter circumstance and the art I create. The biblical interpretation of  “Fire from Heaven” is about sacrifice, (burnt offerings) and retribution.  When I created my rust Monotype “Fire from Heaven” shortly after Trump won enough Electoral votes to qualify...

All animals, plants, and fungi share an ancestor that lived about 1.6 billion years ago. Every lineage that descended from that progenitor retains parts of its original genome. All Creatures Great and Small is my Monotype about all that we have in common with our fellow creatures.   That includes of course the unique world that has shaped our evolution and the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, the DNA that we share. Humans are most closely related to the great apes of the family Hominidae.   We share 98.8 percent of our DNA with bonobos and chimpanzees. 98.4 percent   with gorillas and with mice we share nearly 90 percent of human DNA. Humans and dogs share 84 percent of their DNA!   No wonder I love my dog. She is me! Of course, humans, dogs, mice and apes are going to have DNA in common. They are all mammals. Humans and birds though are a different matter. Yet we, too, share a lot of DNA, 65 percent.   We even share a quarter of our DNA wit...

Vashon Island's Art Studio Tour 2016, the first two weekends in December, is a great opportunity to see, visit and purchase directly from the artists! 

Roby King Galleries on Bainbridge Island asked their artists, "What or who inspires you to be an artist?"  My reply, "Story and Myth, all that stuff we come back to when looking for answers, and the master of Myth, Joseph Campbell".  Those are my inspirations.  I also would say Michael Meade and his insights keep my top spinning! I am inspired by these words by Campbell and have them on the wall in my studio:  "We have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us, the labyrinth is fully known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; 
where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; 
where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; 
where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” ― Joseph Campbell.   Posted above is my Monop...

Horizon and sky are the most memorable characteristics of the midwestern landscape I was born to.   I suspect the knowledge my father shared with me and with my siblings, lying on our backs in the buffalo grass of our grandparent’s Kansas farm and gazing up through night binoculars, predated his studies at Denver University, Colorado and Hays College, Kansas in the 1950’s and 60’s.   Wherever, whenever, his knowledge came from, his passion for stargazing is memorable and has inspired my Rust Monotype “Cygnus”. My Father, Dale Fisher, was born April 20, 1913 into a world of kerosene and candles, well before manmade light and the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 dimmed his world to the heavens. My dad’s perspective about sky included a classical explanation of the constellations, lay observation of the stars/planets and an avid curiosity about the physical world that caused him to call his family outside to witness sputnik traversing the night sky. His is the voic...

This is "Omphalos", a Rust Monoprint with Gold Leaf, mounted to a coped dimensional panel.  It's dimensions are approximately 36 x 36 x 1 3/4 inches.  I made it by rusting a water-jet cut Cort-en steel plate onto/into an antique linen tablecloth. Omphalos means navel, as in belly button, (umbilicus in Latin) and it also means "The Center."  The Omphalos Stone at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi Greece marked the center of the old Greek world. Each culture has its recognized center.  Sometimes more than one. For instance, the USA's political Omphalos would be the White House in Washington DC and cultural center might perhaps be Rockefeller Center in New York City (or not).  In every culture it depends on who's telling the story! If you would like to see "Omphalos," the current center of my world, please visit the annual Seattle Print Arts Members Exhibition, Pressing On, with an opening reception today, Thursday, November 17th,  5-8 pm, a...

The Gemini, Rust Mono Print, Vintage Linen mounted to Panel, 11x11 in. Gemini is one of the brighter constellations of the Zodiac. I n the Northern Hemisphere, it lights up the early evening sky from January until May. The constellation is said to represent the twins of Greek myth Castor and Polydeuces. These brothers are also known as the Dioskouroi or Dioscuri, meaning “sons of Zeus.”  In Latin they are called the Gemini. Myths differ but in the best known story of their parentage and birth, their mother Leda, a Queen of Sparta, was seduced by a swan that turned out to be Zeus.  Amorous Leda soon thereafter also conceived by her husband Tyndareus and gave birth to an egg or eggs that contained the male twins Castor and Polydeuces and female twins Helen and Clytemnestra.  These siblings play significant roles in the many myths that describe the Trojan War, Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece and even the Theseus myth. Castor and Polyd...

Outside / In Fisher Studio     Night Cometh!   Our season of sun and long hours to work and to play in is fading.   Where did the Summer go ?   I am very thankful for the long hot August days I’ve had to “Rust Print” in and appreciative now of Puget Power and Light to extend the workday beyond the Biblically allotted 12 hours of light!  And I’m taking full advantage of all the light-emitting diodes in my new studio to complete what I have started in Summer light! Inside / Out  Fisher Studio

I have been grinding plates, cutting Mylar stencils and making rust happen in the August heat. Vashon Island rarely exceeds the mid 80's but that's the perfect temperature to make rust prints!  Here are a few shots of two prints in process.

"Hylas, Lost to Love" Rust Monoprint, 14x14 in. I just returned from Edmonds, WA and the Unclad 2016 Exhibition.  After a hiatus of several years, art director and promoter Gale Picken ( 66 Events ) recreated and moved her themed show from Stanwood, WA to the Edmonds, WA Yacht club.  I was delighted to once again exhibit in this venue and with 90 wonderful artists from across North America.  Unclad 2016