Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

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.