Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

  Horse Play is my monotype print (1/1) with 24k gold leaf on exhibit in the 3rd Annual VIVA Membership Show at Vashon Center for the Arts.  Visitors are welcome to view the art and talk with artists from 12noon – 8:30pm on 1st Friday, October 2, 2020.  I'll be there at 5pm.  Gallery hours are Thursday – Saturday 12noon – 4pm and the show is up through October.  Please visit and check out art in Print, Painting, Collage, Assemblage, Sculpture, Ceramic, Fiber, Wood, Mosaic, all by 100 Vashon Island Visual Artists.  It's an exciting exhibit that reflects the diversity of work and approach to art being created on Vashon Island in 2020. VCA is located at 19600 Vashon Highway SW, at the corner of Cemetery Road and Vashon Highway.  Summer hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M., Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 – 4:00. Walt Whitman's words from "Song of Myself" inspired Horse Play-  “The Stallion” by Walt Whitman A gigantic beauty of a...

    My spin on Aesop's fable of the Fox & Hare.  Monotype Print, (1/1) with 24k gold leaf.   One warm afternoon Fox napped and woke on a sun soaked slope to find Hare watching her intently. “Why do you stare little friend?” Fox asked.  "Are you really as cunning, as smart, as others say?” Hare asked.  Fox rolled on her back and thought for awhile before replying, “Perhaps I could show you just how cunning I am little friend? You are cordially invited for early dinner, where we shall continue this conversation. Come as you are, come now if you like?” So Hare, filled with curiosity, followed Fox  home. Fox though, had nothing at home to eat except? Now Hare exclaimed, “I have learned too late that your cunning is not about intelligence but unjust trickery that would sacrifice the innocent to fill you own belly.” The fable illustrates- The gullible and uninformed often pay a high price for recklessly indulging their curiosity.

  This Sacred Circle "La Venta" is from my series about sacred sites and sacred geographies.  It's a Ltd. Edition, Original Digital Print, (1/12).  La Venta was an Olmec civic and ceremonial center located in the present day state of Tabasco Mexico.  The Olmec civilization is considered a mother culture of Mesoamerica and flourished between 1600 and 350 BCE.  The La Venta site contains an elaborate series of buried offerings and tombs, as well as monumental sculptures.  One of these 9' tall sculptural heads is the inspiration for my print "La Venta".  

Mauna Kea, Sacred Circle, is inspired by the most prominent geographic feature of the island of Hawai’i, the mountain volcano Mauna Kea and by the stick maps that Polynesian and Micronesian sailers once made and used to chart their open water travel. In Hawaiian traditions of creation, the Earth Mother, Papahānaumoku, and the Sky Father, Wākea, created the Islands, with Hawai‘i Island being the first and the mountain, the piko (navel or center of a beginning or ending), of their creation.   On the mountains sides are many shrines to the pantheon of Hawaiian gods and (it has been suggested) to astronomical phenomena.  The top of Mauna Kea was historically considered kapu and only accessible to priests and the highest chiefs but, beginning in the late 1960s, a number of large telescope observatories have been built at the 13,796 ft. summit where the air is cold, dry and visibility of the heavens is near perfect. In 2019 the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope, was stoped ...

Above is- Sacred Circle "Bosumtwi" from my series about sacred sites, sacred geographies.  It is a Ltd. Edition, Original Digital Print, (1/12). Bosumtwi is a crater lake in Ghana created when a meteor struck Earth an estimated 1.07 million years ago. The Ashanti believe souls of the dead come here to bid farewell to the Goddess Asase Ya, or Mother Earth and wife of Nyame the Sky deity. You can check out my print "Bosumtwi" in person by connecting to the VIVA "Art by Appointment" program. Guides are available on island and here is a Link to schedule an appointment to visit my studio and the 70 Vashon Artists participating in this patron to artist initiative.

I've been hand printing "Dream Catchers" a lino-cut from my Leo and Lang story.  I made this low tech registration block from a 3/4" melamine panel that Suzanne Moore, #scarletpaints33, contributed to make this simple print process possible.  Thanks Suzanne! Leo and Lang are the imaginary same sex characters, as marionettes, who live their love and lives in this ongoing series.  "Dream Catchers" is hand printed with Caligo Ink on Somerset Satin Paper.  Image size, 8.5 in. x 6.75 in.

The subject is Djinn. This photo was taken at QMP, Quartermaster Press, while still on the press.  Although printed last week the red ink was still wet when I picked it up yesterday.  I think one more layer of black line, some gold leaf and... it will be finished!  But first it must... dry! A Djinn (genii, ginn, jann, jinn, shayatin, shaytan) is in Arabic mythology, a spirit, not a demon, not quite an angel either, but something like the Greek Daimones.  Djinn can be either good or evil.  They possess supernatural powers and in lore can be conjured to perform various tasks and services by humankind. Most of us are familiar with Djinn as the wish-granting “Genie” in the Arabic folktale of Aladdin's Lamp and The Book of A Thousand and One Nights, but there are many stories of Djinn.  This is the first of my series about them.

I've been printing my Leo and Lang etching , "Twin Sons, Different Mothers" at Quartermaster Press Studio. I'm so delighted by the polymer plate made by Intaglio Editions from my drawing. The prints from this plate are a small edition in dark gray and a second small edition in carbon black, both on Hahnemühle Copperplate paper. My story of Leo and Lang begins, somewhere in the Netherlands, high atop a chimney. It's a defining moment in a series of images that explore same sex relationship and an imagined history.

The print making plate above was created from my ink drawing "Twin Sons, Different Mothers" by Intaglio Editions of Boulder Colorado.   I could not be more happy with this fine art plate and sincerely thank and recommend Intaglio Editions . Technically, this polymer plate is a photogravure etching.  The process is capable of reproducing every gradation of tone in a photograph.  Here it has captured the finest of lines. I've been thinking of and making drawings about romantic relationships and an imaginary same sex couple, "Leo and Lang", (born at the turn of the last century), for the past several years.  In trying to find the right medium to tell their story I've so far explored Lino Cut, Image On Polymer, Transfer Print and Watercolor.  All of those techniques have their advantages, but when it comes to making an edition from my drawn images, Intaglio Editions and this plate making process is the best!

"Learning by Heart" was made for the Heart of Resilience Show at Vashon Center for the Arts Gallery this month.  It is an original digital print Ltd 1/12.  The show asks what are artists making in the time of COVID 19 and how do we stay creative in the face of the epidemic?   Much of how we survive is learning to endure.  How we endure is learned by heart.  Habits sustain us. Perhaps the best advice I received from my parents when facing uncertainty was about maintaining a schedule and establishing a routine.  Bathe, dress, what now, what next, get back into the saddle.  Ride this thing out. 

William Stafford wrote one of my favorite poems about guiding vision called The Way It Is- Theseus.  Because I am who I am and love what I love and who I love his words always speak to me. Particularly now.  The Way It Is- Theseus There’s a thread you follow. It goes among 
 things that change. But it doesn’t change. 
 People wonder about what you are pursuing.
 You have to explain about the thread.
 But it is hard for others to see.
 While you hold it you can’t get lost.
 Tragedies happen; people get hurt
 or die; and you suffer and get old.
 Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
 You don’t ever let go of the thread. In this time of Covid-19, we seem caught up in a confounding labyrinth.  As individuals, municipalities and states, as countries and continents, the world seems lost but science is the thread.  Hold on tight to the facts. The image above is from my Sacred Circles Series called Knossos.  1/12, an original digital print.

Easter weekend I made these bench hooks for safely carving linoleum blocks like this one of "Leo and Lang", from my Love Puppet series.  the smaller bench hook is great for 4 x 6 in. blocks and with the larger one i can cut 8x10 in., 10x12 in. and in between!

Opening last night- my solo exhibit at Bellarmine's Gathering Space Art Gallery , Tacoma Wa, March 5-30, 2020.  
Thank you artist and teacher Ben Meeker for the opportunity to show and for the incredible Mediterranean spread! I wish I had a photo of that! The circle is a reoccurring element in much of my imagery and is representative of many things to me. These three Rust Monotypes reflect cyclic stages of the hero's quest for balance in his/her exploration of our creative, spiritual and cultural impulses. Each was made by using an open steel plate and acetate stencils; a variation on the water-jet cut steel plates I sometimes print from. Thanks to everyone who could come and all the wonderful conversation!

My cut steel sculpture "Aphrodite" exhibits Feb 7- March 1, 2020 at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island in "A Trio of Print-makers".  Opening reception is Tonight, Feb. 7, 6-8 pm.  Aphrodite is the ancient Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation.  
 I love the description of her in this version of “Give me that old time religion” made popular by folk musician Pete Seeger.
 Shall I worship Zarathustra 
just the way we use ta? 
 Be a Zarathustra Booster
 What a thing to be! Or maybe Aphrodite
 She’s beautiful but flighty
 and doesn’t wear a nighty, now there’s a sight to see. 
Or perhaps I’ll choose Apollo 
 a decent god to follow
 I’d grovel and I’d wallow
 Brought low on bended knee. 
Elohim or Yahweh?
 Allah or the highway? 
 I think I’ll just go my way.
 That’s good enough for me. 
Give me that old time religion 
Give me that old time religion
.... It's good enough for me!

My monotype print “Amphora Asterion”, exhibits in "A Trio of Printmakers", ( Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve MacFarlane).  Feb 7- March 1, 2020 at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island. The opening reception is  Feb. 7, 6-8 pm. Amphora Asterion is a   Monotype Print,  29 1/4 x 21 1/2  in. depicting Asterion, the Minotaur of Cretan Myth. And the Queen gave birth to a child who was called Asterion. —Apollodorus   A mingled form where two strange shapes combined, And different natures, bull and man, were joined. —Euripides  

My cut steel sculpture "Asterion, The Starry One" exhibits Feb 7- March 1, 2020 at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island in "A Trio of Print-makers".  Opening reception is  Feb. 7 6-8 pm.   Crete’s mythic civilization began when Zeus (as bull) abducted Europa from a Phoenician beach and swam into the setting sun until arriving on the Aegean island of Crete.  To their union three children were born, Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon.  Europa became queen of Crete upon marrying Crete's reigning King Asterion and he stepfather to her children.  Upon his death the children warred as successors and when Minos defeated his brothers to become King he prayed that Poseidon, God of the Seas, send him a bull to sacrifice in recognition that his Kingship was divinely sanctioned.  Poseidon’s gift, a beautiful pure white bull, The Cretan Bull, The Bull From The Sea, appeared as petitioned but Minos instead elected to substitute another bull and kept t...

"Perseus" will exhibit at Roby King Gallery , Bainbridge Island WA, Feb 7- March 1, 2020 in "A Trio of Print-makers" with work by Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve McFarlane.  The opening Reception is Feb 7, 6-8 pm. Check it Out! Perseus is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. His mother Danae was the daughter of Acrisius, the King of Argos. King Acrisius locked Danae in a room without windows or doors, open only to the heavens, to prevent her ever having suitors or a child after the Oracle at Delphi foretold his own death by Danae's son.  Zeus however saw and fell in love with Danae and visited her from above as a shower of gold and so Perseus was conceived and born. King Acrisius, now the grandfather of a demi-god, attempted one more time to thwart the prophecy.  He locked Danae and the infant Perseus in a wooden chest and cast them into the Aegean Sea.  Eventually, they washed up and were found by Diktys, a fis...

Medusa, my monotype print, will exhibit at Roby King Gallery , Bainbridge Island WA, Feb 7- March 1, 2020 in "A Trio of Print-makers" with work by Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve McFarlane. So delighted to be part of this talented lineup!  The opening Reception is Feb 7, 6-8 pm. Check it Out! The Myths of Medusa and Perseus have been told and retold for time out of mind and the image of Medusa as Gorgon can be found in art and architecture for thousands of years.  Even today she appears on the flag of Sicily and ever since Gianni Versace adopted Medusa as his logo in 1978 her iconic image has become even more pervasive. 

The eighth century BC poet Hesiod, of Boeotia, composed a poem, the Theogony, about the creation of the world and the Greek gods.  In it he describes the Gorgons, the mortal Medusa, whose name comes from the old verb médô that means “I rule,” and her two immortal sisters, Sthenno or “strength” and Euryale “the one that leaps or wand...

My new cut steel sculpture "Daphne" will exhibit at Roby King Gallery, Bainbridge Island WA, Feb 7- March 1, 2020 in "A Trio of Print-makers" with Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve McFarlane.  The opening Reception is Feb 7, 6-8 pm.  Check it Out!   Ovid's description of Daphne's pursuit by Apollo, prayer to her father the river god Peneus and subsequent change into the Laurel or Daphne tree is context for my sculpture.  My inspiration though is Kathleen Raine's contemporary poem "Daphne After" and her Me-Too depiction of coping with violation and the victims emotional metamorphosis. 
 Daphne After by Kathleen Raine   In the absence of a heart grown stemwise, silent, slow Daphne drinks unremembering and unknown, in the manner of a laurel thinks in branches, sometimes blossoms.  Real forgetting is her secret, long detachment, no slit sense to heal. Only sentiment and song remember how she suffered, ran in terror, turning tree, an...

  "Theseus", 25 x 37 in. is my monotype print with 23k gold leaf exhibiting at Roby King Gallery, 176 Winslow Way E., Bainbridge Island, WA in "A Trio of Print-makers" with Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve MacFarlane. The opening reception is February 7, 6-8. Gallery Hours: 11am-6pm, Tues.-Sat. through February.

 If ever there was one "Once upon a time..." story, the Athenian foundation myth of Theseus covers all the the Jungian archetypal conquering hero motifs. He is tested, he is good, he slays monsters, returns with wisdom and is a unifying King. It's Greek myth so of course doesn't end all so well for Theseus but it's probably my favorite hero story!

"Anthem", (Small Town Boy) & "The Band Played On", ( Never Can Say Goodby), by Brian Fisher, Monotype Print with wood bas-relief.  "Anthem" in gold and "The Band Played On" in green, above, are two of five collagraph monotype and wood bas-relief window installations I printed and carved for the Vashon Heritage Museum's "In and Out, Being LGBTQ+ on Vashon Island".  Designed by Jessica DeWire and curated by Ellen Kritzman and Stephen Silha , the exhibit is showing now through March 2020. My window installations are inspired by the coming out “Anthems”, the music my Gay friends have shared and that I subsequently have listened to while planning, printing and assembling each element of this music inspired installation. The Bronskie Beat song "Small Town Boy" is a personal favorite and is my inspiration for "Anthem".

"Icarus", Brian Fisher, Steel Sculpture My sculpture Icarus will exhibit at   Roby King Gallery Feb 7- March 1 Opening Reception Feb 7, 6-8 pm.   Icarus by Rebecca G. Bagget The story is so simple really. Imagine yourself gifted with wings, every child's sleeping and waking dream, imagine that you could defy that force dragging us all to heel, imagine every sweet safe green harbor below, laid out for your choosing like candies in their box. Then imagine that one gold coin, that fierce and pulsing point around which worlds dance, imagine the gentleness below and that wildness above, imagine that something in you echoed to the leaping of its flames, imagine how its one question beat in your veins, how you saw with perfect clarity that moment in which each of us chooses, forever. Imagine that voice far below crying: Come back      Come back   ...

I love seeing my Vashon friends in this YouTube clip created by filmmaker Michael Monteleone celebrating  the Vashon Island Heritage Museum's exhibit "In and Out,  Being LGBTQ on Vashon Island".  The exhibit opened in June 2019 and it will continue until March of 2020.  If you've already seen this inspirational, informational, exhibit please share it with your friends.  If you have not already experienced "In and Out", designed by Jessica DeWire and curated by Ellen Kritzman and Stephen Silha...  you must check it out!   My contribution to the celebration are five print and bas relief window installations inspired by the "coming out music" my friends and family shared with me.  At left is a snap from the "In and Out" opening.  It was wall to wall fun and a night to remember!

“Oedipus Rex”, my rust monotype on vintage linen is now on exhibit at Roby King Gallery , 176 Winslow Way E. Bainbridge Island, WA. Jan 3-Feb 2, 2020. Oedipus was born to Laius, King of Thebes and his Queen Jocasta. At his birth, it was prophesied that this child, Oedipus, would murder his father and marry his mother.  So Laius, frightened, sent Oedipus to be exposed to weather and wild beasts on Mt. Cithaeron.  However, Oedipus did not die, instead he was found and adopted by the King Polybus of Corinth and his Queen.  When Oedipus is called bastard as a young man and told that King Polybus might not be his real father, he left Corinth and journeyed to Delphi and its’ Oracle in search of an answer to his true parentage. The Delphic Oracle does not tell him who his true family is but does tell him that his destiny is to kill his father and marry his mother.  In order to thwart the prophecy, Oedipus decides never to return to Corinth and his eventual inherita...

The Vashon Island Connection   -Brian Fisher, Pam Ingalls, Susan Lowrey opened last night at Roby King Gallery ,  176 Winslow Way E. Bainbridge Island, WA.  Jan 3-Feb 2, 2020.   Thanks Andrea Roby and Wes King for a wonderful evening!  So much fun!

The Vashon Island Connection   Brian Fisher, Pam Ingalls, Susan Lowrey show at Roby King Gallery ,   176 Winslow Way E. Bainbridge Island, WA.  Jan 3- Feb 2, 2020.   Join us for the Opening Reception: First Friday, January 3, 6-8 pm. "Warriors Waiting", monotype with 23k gold, is one of my many prints in this show.