Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

“Paper Moon”, from my Leo and Lang series, is a limited edition linocut print for sale in my studio ( #15 ) on the VIVA Spring Art Studio Tour, May 7-8 and 14-15, 2022.  Once upon a time, before cameras were common and digital imagery had replaced film, everyone’s local fair or carnival featured set photography booths where a photo portrait might be taken to document the day, a friendship, or love, paper moons were a standard set. The song Paper Moon was written in 1932 and had already been recorded by many artists when in 1973 Peter Bogdanovich gave it new life by using it as theme music and naming his movie, based on Joe David’s novel Addie Pray and starring Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal and Madeline Kahn, Paper Moon. The film has since become a classic and words to the song indelible. “It is only a paper moon, Sailing over a cardboard sea But it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me.” Given the time and place I’ve imagined my characters Leo and Lang born into, they must ha...

"Angel Over Atwood", relief monotype print. (1/1). 24" x 36", is named for a small town on the prairie located at the intersection of US Highway 36 and Kansas 25 in Northwest Kansas and nestled in the Beaver Valley on Beaver Creek. This was Cheyenne, Comanche, and Arapaho country before white European settlers replaced them. Under the Works Progress Administration Atwood built a lake and when I was born called itself- Atwood, City by the Lake.    After the American Civil War my Fathers’ family moved to this area and to other small towns and land around Atwood. They came at a time when life meant struggle and to simply endure could be thought of as success. They brought little with them other than the belief that they would persevere and an ability to laugh often. Above all they were practical, though some of them were quite religious and (according to my grandfather) superstitious. I am sure that some saw angels in the tall grass as the wind swept the plains or...

Sphinx, oil on canvas 22"x22" “What has four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?” In Greek myth Sphinx is a monster with the body and tail of a lion, the face of a woman, and the wings of a bird. Her infamous siblings Hydra, Chimera and the Gorgons share an equally confusing biology. Hera sent Sphinx to punish the city of Thebes and in her role as threshold guardian she famously challenges the hero Oedipus to a game of riddles. That was her thing, to ask tricky questions to those who wished to pass and eat her unwilling opponent If they were unable to answer the riddle correctly. Oedipus solved the riddle, “Man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two legs, and finally needs a cane in old age.” Check out Sphinx on the 2022 Vashon Island Artist Studio Tour, May 7-8, 14-15. Map and info- Vivartists.com . and  @viva_vashon_artists