Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

My Monotype "The Minotaur" will exhibit in Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island, January Jan 3 - Feb 2 with work from two other Vashon Island Artists, Susan Lowery and Pam Ingalls. Check us out! Crete’s mythic history begins with the abduction by Zeus (as bull) of Europa, a princess of Phoenicia and a long swim to the shores of Greece's largest island.  With their union, Europa became the first queen of the island kingdom of Crete, powerhouse of the Aegean and subsequently the namesake of Europe.   When Minos, a descendant of Zeus and Europa, defeated his brothers to become King he prayed that Poseidon, God of the Aegean Sea who's waters surrounded Crete, send him a gift/sacrifice in recognition that his Kingship was divinely sanctioned, his prayers were answered (kind of). Poseidon’s gift, a beautiful pure white bull, The Bull From The Sea, appeared as petitioned but Minos decided instead of sacrificing the bull to substitute another as tribute and kept

It's the second weekend of the VIVA Holiday Art Studio Tour.  The VIVA Studio Tour is all about connecting to the artists who create in almost every conceivable medium on Vashon.  Here's a wonderful article from the Beachcomber about this years tour- Art for Everyone! Welcome to Brian Fisher Studio, Stop #2  on the 2019 Holiday VIVA Art Studio Tour!

The 2nd weekend of the VIVA Art Studio Tour is December 14 & 15, 10-4.  Check out the 45, yes, 45 !!! studios and galleries on the 2019 Vashon Island Art Studio Holiday Tour!  My original digital print Eden (1/12), above, will be on exhibit in Brian Fisher Studio. #2 on tour.   I invite you to stop by and check out where I think and make and make ... more!  Here's a link to Jeff Hoyt's VOV, Voice of Vashon , interview with artist Pam Ingalls and with me.  It's all about why this VIVA tour and Vashon Island are so special!

Sacred Circle "Natchez", original digital print. Visit Brian Fisher Studio, Studio #2, on the 2019 VIVA Holiday Art Studio Tour , Dec. 14-15, 10am-4pm to see "Natchez"! From the whorls of our fingertips, the irises of our eyes, to our cells and the egg that gave each of us life, we are manifestations of the circle. My print images about circle reflect the symbolic nature of the shape. Their names reference the sacred sites, temples, cathedrals that more often than not were built and built again upon ancient and already sacred sites. My personal references for "Natchez" are the mounds, as seen from above, the Natchez Native Americans built as foundations for their temple structures on the lower Mississippi River and the Magnolia trees in blossom I saw for the first time when visiting that beautiful part of our world.

Brian Fisher Studio is stop # 2 on the VIVA Holiday Art Studio Tour December 7-8 & 14-15, 10am-4pm.  Come for the fun! Kodama- Indigenous cultures around the world revered special trees or rocks or unique aspects of their homelands.  Japanese myth speaks of Kodama, deities who dwell within or among the trees and groves they protect.  One of the oldest references to the Kodama is the book Wamuryorui Jyusho or Japanese Names for Things; written 931 – 938 CE.  In this dictionary Kodama are defined as spirits of the trees . Early Japanese lore described the Kodama as either invisible or indistinguishable from trees but over time Kodama took on human aspect.  There are stories of Kodama falling in love with humans and assuming human shape to be with their beloved much like the Greek myths of Dryads, humans and gods. -->

Brian Fisher Studio is stop #2 on the 2019 Vashon Island Holiday Art Studio Tour.  Check out all 45 tour studios and galleries at Vashon Art Tour featuring 120 plus artists! This VIVA event is a fun and informative experience! Make a date with a friend, choose your route and experience Art on Vashon!

"Knossos", Collagraph Monotype Print 1/1,  Brian Fisher.  Ariadne awaits without while her lover within unreels  the clue that reveals the quest  that will echo in worlds beyond  their imagining. Brian Fisher

"Centaurs", Brian Fisher. Monotype Print (1/1), 10 x 10 in. The Ailanthus Altissima, Tree of Heaven, planted by my Grandma Fisher had metamorphosed into a thicket resembling a giant asparagus patch by the time I was born.  My cousin, brother and I had however recognized the trees true equine nature and would each select and snap a brittle steed from the patch and gallop up the creek bank and into the pasture.  While they imagined themselves as cowboys or Indians I knew, I always knew, we were Centaurs. From “The Centaur” by May Swenson My forelock swung in my eyes, my neck arched and I snorted. I shied and skittered and reared, stopped and raised my knees, pawed at the ground and quivered. My teeth bared as we wheeled and swished through the dust again. I was the horse and the rider, and the leather I slapped to his rump spanked my own behind. Doubled, my two hoofs beat a gallop along the bank, the wind twanged in my mane, my mouth squared to the bit. And yet I sat on my

"Awakening", Brian Fisher, 10"x 10", original digital print Climate Change...  Do not assume rational action from reasonable humans.  To be human, it would seem, is to be irrational.  When faced with the Eco-Apocalypse we are engaged in, we prefer to deny scientific facts and at the same time assume science will “fix” our future.  If there ever was a common cause we are neck deep in it, each connected, one to the other and solely dependent on earth, our mother, for any kind of future.  Awake!  Please!  Now!

"Nature Boy", Brian Fisher, Monotype Print with 24k gold leaf.       When I was young my Grandma Lula and I were big fans of Nat King Cole.  Whenever we listened to records (all the time) I asked that she play his soulful recording of "Nature Boy" over & over and yes... one more time please?  This green man image is one of several monotype prints inspired by Eden Ahbez's magical  words and Cole's rendition of "Nature Boy".  Listen to the link below. Nature Boy There was a boy A very strange enchanted boy They say he wandered very far, very far Over land and sea A little shy and sad of eye But very wise was he And then one day A magic day he passed my way And while we spoke of many things Fools and kings This he said to me The greatest thing you'll ever learn Is just to love and be loved in return The greatest thing you'll ever learn Is just to love and be loved in return Eden Ahbez

Inspired by the trees and landscape around me, all seemingly illuminated from within.  This is "Seasons Change", 10 x 10 in. collograph print over wood panel. Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees. Faith Baldwin, American author.

The Goddess of Forgetting, Monotype Print by Brian Fisher "Long ago you kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag, and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay. Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue or even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen. It has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle." From the poem “Forgetfulness” and the book of poems - Questions About Angels, b y Billy Collins.

"Cygnus", my Rust Monotype Print, will be in the Vashon Center for the Arts live auction, “Masquerade: A Midsummer’s Night Dream”, September 21, 6:45-8:45 pm .  Here's what the schedule looks like for this year's annual fundraiser.  Doors open at 5:30 pm at VCA, Vashon Island WA.   Live auction tickets are $50.   Silent Auction & Appetizers, 5:30-6:30 pm. Golden ticket raffle sales $100., (100 tickets only) for $2,500. towards an art purchase or a week in a Paris apartment. Live auction viewing while enjoying specialty cocktails, beer, wine and appetizers. Live auction, 6:45-8:45 pm.  “Cygnus” represents transformation and is a Rust Monotype with 24k gold on vintage linen mounted over a coped wooden panel.   My father’s voice first conjured the mythic stories of Ursa major and minor, the Pleiades, Andromeda and Cygnus into my consciousness while we lay on our backs in the grass of my grandparent’s Kansas farm, gazing up throug

Ouroboros, monotype print, symbol of eternity. Ouroboros, the snake that swallows its tail, is emblematic of eternity.  He is the world serpent who circles the earth in his coils and represents the duality of existence and the eternal unity of all things.  As concept and symbol the Ouroboros exits in Egyptian and Greek myth, Christian Gnosticism and was a common myth of indigenous people of South America.

Kronos, painted steel Threshold Guardian, garden art. Thresholds are boundaries between worlds.  They are liminal because they are neither here nor there, in or out. They represent end and they are beginning.  They may exist as physical boundaries, the wood or stone lintel at your feet, but are also embodiment of the worlds where the unconscious and awakened consciousness meet. They are time out of time. Once upon a time I ran. I was fast enough to win some races.  What I remember best about those experiences were out of body movement towards a simple goal, a finish line. The guardian of the threshold was time himself. I have been working on new interpretations of personal threshold guardians.  Above is my take on Kronos, “Father Time” (watches and clocks were once called chronographs). Kronos is for me the running man, embodiment of the race, our dance in time and my own experience of timelessness. -->

Enki, The Great One.  Also known as Ea in Babylonian mythology, Enki is the Sumerian god of water, knowledge, mischief and creation.  He's part if my series about Babylonian sky maps.  Enki is a mixed media rust print over panel.

Expressions Northwest Exhibition.  David Sessions, Juror at Northwind Art Center, Port Townsend, Washington.  Aug.1 - Sept. 1.  Here are four of the five monotype prints I an fortunate to have in this thoughtful exhibit.

This is my monotype print "The Greening".  I'm working on other images, subjects, but the Green Man keeps appearing!  Obviously he is emblematic of - A New Green Deal   If we are to have a future it is imperative that we focus on mitigation of human impact on Earth's climate. Make Earth Green Again, MEGA!

VIVA, Vashon Island's Visual Artists organization, will be selling Garden Totems during  Vashon's Strawberry Festival this Saturday, Sunday July 20-2i1, 2019! Each one is unique and hand-crafted by Vashon Island artists. Proceeds go towards funding organizational projects, functions and VIVA Scholarships.  The Totems will sell for $175. each. Below is my contribution, Byzantium in Red! Come looks us over and check out our raffle too, booth A-19!  

I am posting a few images from the Vashon Heritage Museum's opening of "In and Out, Being LGBTQ on Vashon Island", June 7, 2019!  The exhibit will run though March of 2020. Deb Phillimore, Ellen Kritsman. Stephen Sila, Jesica De Wire, Bruce Haulman and the inspired advisory board they assembled have created a very special and colorful exhibit. Here are some photos from the opening night - wall to wall people having fun, celebrating Vashon Island and the many worlds that collide to make this island truly unique! Thank you Stephen Sila for inviting me to create the print and sculpture window installations for this Vashon Heritage Museum exhibition and to be a part of this celebration!  

June, 2019, VIVA presents an all member show at the Hardware Store Restaurant , Vashon, WA.  Opening night- June 7th from 6-9 pm.  My mixed media rust print image in this venue is Ninmah, “The Mother” from my series about Babylonian sky maps.  Ninmah had many names, as old gods and goddesses often do.  Some of her names are Ninmah, (Great Queen), Nintu, (Lady of Birth), Mamma or Mami, (Mother) and Aruru (Lady of the Gods).  

Vashon artists participating in the 2019 Spring VIVA Studio Tour are prepping their art studios and finishing work to sell Sat-Sun, May 4-5 & 11-12, 2019 from 10am-5pm.  If you live on Vashon this event is free!  If not, for the price of a ferryboat ticket, you will find 33 studios and galleries displaying inspiring work from over 100 Vashon Island artists.  This year Brian Fisher Studio is #16. Link to the VIVA art map and preview all the studios you will want to see. Above is Notre Dame, 1/12, an original digital print from my growing series exploring sacred place and circle.

On June 7, 2019 the Vashon Island Heritage Museum will open IN AND OUT: Being LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 on Vashon Island.   The exhibit is interactive and collaborative with a series of programs that examine and celebrate the long, quiet history of LGBTQ+ people of Vashon-Maury Island.  Stephen Sila and Ellen Kritzman are co-curators of this wonderful show and I'm honored to have been asked to be part of it. You might like to participate as a patron of this historic exhibition here- GoFundMe. I have been working this past week at the studio of my generous and talented friends Ilse and Hartmut Reimnitz.  They are both busy finishing artwork for the all island VIVA Studio Tour, May 4-5 & 11-12. I thank them for making room for me to work on the 10+, 25 x 37 in. images that are my contribution to "In and Out".    Above are details from Anthem , two large collagraph/monotype prints.  Anthem is my take on songs of pride, self discovery and empowerment that gay friends

Klew, Brian Fisher, monotype print, 9 x 22 in. “Klew” my monotype print (1/1) will be on display, #16 on the VIVA Studio Tour , May 4-5 & 11-12.  Please stop by to say hi and see what I’ve been up to.  A clue is a way of finding our path out of a perplexing matter or metaphorical labyrinth.  The word and its meaning began as Klew, a ball of thread.   If you have ever said, “I don’t have a clue” you were referencing the myth of Ariadne, Theseus, the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. Ariadne was a princess of Minoan Crete and half sister to the Minotaur.  When Theseus, prince and hero of Athens arrived on the island of Crete as sacrificial tribute to King Minos and his step son the Minotaur, Ariadne fell in love with him.  She gave Theseus a ball of thread that he unwound behind him as he searched the labyrinth to find and destroy the Minotaur.  Deed done he rewound the thread and retraced his steps.

Collagraph lacquer print plate detail from "Anthem" in Let's All Dance series On June 7, 2019 the Vashon Island Heritage Museum will open IN AND OUT: Being LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 on Vashon Island.  IN And Out will be an interactive, collaborative exhibit and series of programs that examine and celebrate the long, quiet history of LGBTQ+ people of Vashon-Maury Island. According to the last US census, Vashon-Maury Island reported the greatest per capita population of Gays and Lesbians in Washington State. You might like to participate as a patron of this historic exhibition here- GoFundMe. My contribution to IN AND OUT will be 5 double panel collagraphs printed over monotype backgrounds.  Each set of prints will also have a unique sculptural, dance as subject element.  I call this series of song sourced images "Let's All Dance".
  
A song is a personal experience.  It may evoke the emotional poignancy or elation of a defining moment.  The same song might also b