Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Twin Djinn, 10 x 10 in. monotype over wood panel, (currently at Swiftwater Gallery ) is inspired by the Arabic myths of the Qareen, meaning “constant companion” or spiritual double, who is either part of you or a complementary being in another dimension. Sometimes defined as Djinn, the Qareen have parallels in Egyptian mythology, as ka, a tangible "spirit double" and in contemporary stories of the doppelgänger.

"Pazzi, Sacred Circle" by Brian Fisher, original digital print Filippo Brunelleschi designed the Pazzi Chapel, part of the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, Italy as a perfect space, a circle within a square with harmonious vertical proportions, for Andrea de’ Pazzi in 1429.  The vibrantly glazed terracotta dome beneath its portico was created by Luca della Robbia and is the inspiration for my original digital print Pazzi.  Today the chapel is used as the chapter house by Santa Croce friars.

Pics from QMP artists Collography demonstration. PRESSING FORWARD – Layered Perspectives in Printmaking, the Quartermaster Press Exhibit at Tacoma Art Museum’s Cheney Classroom that opened July 11 is still on exhibit until September 27, 2018. Eight Quartermaster Press artists accepted the challenge to create new work inspired by the Tacoma Art Museum's print collection.  The resulting exhibit is a spectrum of print process with etchings, linocuts, collagraphs, and monotypes and is as visually complex and compelling as the work that was it's inspirational source. Artists Patricia Churchill, Debi Shandling Crawford, Brian Fisher, Sue Hardy, Suzanne Moore, Christina Nichols, Jayne Quig and Deborah Taylor originally worked from online images to create their prints.  In mid July they were able to see the original artwork that initially inspired them. QMP members have also demonstrated collography and monotype print process during the course of the exhibit.  Above ...

Below are two new images inspired by Doris Lee’s prints in the Tacoma Art Museum collection.  Quartermaster Press  studio will exhibit work in it's latest show Pressing Forward at the Tacoma Art Museum's Cheney class room July 11- September 27, 2018.  Each QMP member artist selected work from the permanent collection and created a new generation of prints in response to subject, image and/or print process.  It has been an exciting challenge! Doris Lee’s “Maypole" image might appear quaint, her pictorial approach intentionally naive, but the subject has as source an ancient fertility rite and I think her take on the subject a little subversive.  Here is a link to her print.  Maypole  I celebrate her vision and explore the mythic spring rite in “Beltane" (the anglicized name for the Gaelic May Day festival) and again in my monotype print version of “Maypole”.    Brian Fisher, "Maypole" Monotype Brian Fisher, "Beltane"  Mo...

Not a melody, not rhythm.... harmony is all cord. Betwixt and Between, the reality that is not about a moment past or present, but all moments, collected and coalesced... it is the now that is Harmony. Below is my attempt at describing Harmony, visually.  At 6 x 6 in. it is a mall Betwixt & Between Monotype exhibited for your enjoyment.  Please view "Harmony" at stop # 2 during the VIVA Studio tour- May 5-6 and 12-13, the first two weekends in May! Link to Map here,  VIVA Studio Tour

Every rite of passage involves a journey, twist and recognition of center.  That still point is the source of possibility, where new horizons are recognizable.  It's continually active.  If you are alive you seek that point.  It is the eternal now.  It is Betwixt and Between.  What happens next?  Now! Here is my distillation of Betwixt and Between.  A Monotype print mounted to panel on display and for sale, yes the moment can be for sale, during the VIVA Art Studio tour.

"Morning Mist"(1/3) is a ltd. edition linocut print displayed and for sale at Brian Fisher Studio, stop # 2 on the VIVA (Vashon Island Visual Artist) Spring Studio Tour.  Map link here- VIVA Studio Tour   "Morning Mist"is intended to evoke that feeling of mystery, displacement and suspended time that fog will conjure when encountered.  This happens often where I live and I revel in the cloud that muffles sound and redefines the familiar. Morning Mist (1/3), Linocut by Brian Fisher, 19 1/2 x 27 in.

VIVA Art Studio Tour is less than a week away and I have been busy finishing and framing work that will be on display in my studio, stop # 2 on the tour.  I just framed this mixed media monoprint with 24k gold leaf yesterday.  It's called "Nature Boy".  Here is a link to the VIVA Studio Tour site for more information.

Brian Fisher and Debi Shandling Crawford demonstrate Collagraphy at VCA Koch Gallery Here is a YouTube link to the Collagraphy Demonstration by Brian Fisher , filmed last weekend, April 14, when Brian Fisher and Debi Shandling Crawford demonstrated Collagraphy plate and print making in the Vashon Center for the Arts, Koch Gallery to a receptive audience of art and print enthusiasts. Thanks VCA and Rick Skillman's video crew for filming the event! Basically, a Collagraph plate is made by gluing relatively flat or thin elements to a substrate.  In this demonstration paper was glued to a plexiglass plate to create shallow relief that was then inked as an intaglio and relief plate, then printed to paper on a small etching press. This was just one of the QMP 25 special events.  Next weekend, Saturday April 28 at 1:30 Quartermaster Press and Brian Fisher will host "The Collectors Conversation" at Vashon Center for the Arts.  We’ll find out...

Brian Fisher, assisted by Debi Shandling Crawford, will share the art of Collagraphy plate and print making tomorrow, April 14, in the Vashon Center for the Arts, Koch Gallery at 1:30 pm.  Art and printmaking enthusiasts please join us to learn about this very simple way to make and print a collagraph. Collagraphy refers to a collage of materials glued to a substrate to create a printable plate.  Ink may be applied to the high surfaces of the plate with a brayer, like a relief print, or ink may be applied to the entire plate and then removed by wiping from the upper surfaces leaving ink between and around collage elements, resulting in an intaglio print.  This demo is the first of many scheduled events (check out the VCA link above for dates) in celebration of the Quartermaster Press Studio's 25 Anniversary.   Collagraphy Plates 1&2 (left) and Prints from plate 2 (right)

Last night Quartermaster Press Studio kicked off it's 25th Anniversary Celebration and retrospective exhibit with a talk by Valerie Willson.  She spoke about QMP's founding in a potting shed on Quartermaster Drive in 1993, the subsequent move to it's present location at Beall Greenhousese in 2010 and the studio's group history and the evolution of printmaking at Quartermaster Press.   Many of the founding members were present to hear Valerie briefly describe the experimentation and complexities of making fine art prints.  The Koch Gallery and Vashon Center for the Arts Lobby walls are filled with almost every kind of print process.  Valerie pointed out with explanation to examples of  etchings, viscosity monotypes, monoprints, collagraphs, linocuts,... and more! Co-curator Pat Churchill introducing Valerie Willson at QMP 25 opening April 6, 2018   Print enthusiasts and QMP fans listen to Valerie Willson speak at QMP 25 opening April 6, 2...

Vashon Island's print collective, Quartermaster Press, is celebrating it's 25th anniversary with an exhibition that features work by 31 past and current QMP members at Vashon Center for the Arts, April 6, 2018 through May 25, 2018. The first opening will begin at 5:30, April 6 when Valerie Willson will share QMP history and talk a little about print process.   More talks and demonstrations by QMP members are scheduled in April and May. The first demonstration will be about collagraphy on Saturday, April 14 at 1:30 when Brian Fisher will show how a collagraph plate is made, inked and printed. Below is "Persephone Cycle" a collagraph print, 17 1/2" x 17 1/2" by Brian.  It's one of many unique prints on display at VCA for your enjoyment.  Please join us for this visual celebration! "Persephone Cycle"  Collagraph print by Brian Fisher

Today the Quartermaster Press 25 Retrospective Exhibit, April 6 - May 25 at Vashon Center for the Arts Lobby and Koch Gallery really started coming together!  QMP printers, past and present, delivered work that will challenge and inspire viewers of this show.  Thank you QMP printers! Pat Churchill, Deborah Taylor and Devin Grimm, VCA gallery manager, received and documented what was coming in the door while Suzanne Moore and Brian Fisher began hanging "The Collectors' Wall" in the VCA lobby.  By the end of a long day everyone was involved with arranging, shifting and rearranging 39 framed prints to everyone's satisfaction, ( though tweaks to come are already anticipated)! Tomorrow the fun continues when we hang the Koch Gallery.  Here's a public preview of the Collectors' Wall.  How'd we do ? QMP 25 Collectors' Wall, Vashon Center for the Arts, Vashon Washington, 2018

Quartermaster Press, the Vashon Island Print cooperative, celebrates its 25th anniversary with an exhibit of current and past work by members. Expect many talks and print demonstrations throughout the two months the show is hanging, April 6 - May 25.  Location and dates for events can be found at Vashon Center for the Arts Koch Gallery .  The opening is April 6, and first talk by Valerie Willson will be at 5:30 during Vashon's First Friday Art Walk.  Please join the celebration!   QMP current members 2018 gathered round the press from left to right are: Sue Hardy, Brian Fisher, Jayne Quig, Valerie Willson, Christina Nichols,  Patricia Churchill, Deborah Taylor, Suzanne Moore, Lisa Guy, Debi Shandling Crawford, and Katherine Tonnessen Quartermaster Press 2018

I am delighted that Corvidae Press has featured my Monotype Print "The Calydonian Boar" as their image on the call for submissions to Printmaker's Hand IV, their 2018 Exhibition! It is always a geat show at the Northwind Art Center in Port Townsend. Last year The Printmakers Hand exhibit coincided with Port Townsend's open studio. That made it all the more fun to visit!  Corvidae Press was on the tour and their studio at For Warden was the highlight for me of the tour. OK~ Quartermaster Press Printers, you only have a few more days to submit!

My good friend and fellow printer Ilse Reimnitz and I shared our print passion with 9 students this past weeknd.  Most of them were new friends and new to monotype print.  Ilse introduced me to monotype 20 years ago.  It continues to be my inky hands-down favorite way to make imagery! 

Lethe, Monotype Print, 24kt gold leaf, 36 x 15 in. Lethe Come to my arms, cruel and sullen thing; Indolent beast, come to my arms again, For I would plunge my fingers in your mane And be a long time unremembering — And bury myself in you, and breathe your wild Perfume remorselessly for one more hour: And breathe again, as of a ruined flower, The fragrance of the love you have defiled. I long to sleep; I think that from a stark Slumber like death I could awake the same As I was once, and lavish without shame Caresses upon your body, glowing and dark. To drown my sorrow there is no abyss, However deep, that can compare with your bed. Forgetfulness has made its country your red Mouth, and the flowing of Lethe is in your kiss. My doom, henceforward, is my sole desire: As martyrs, being demented in their zeal, Shake with delightful spasms upon the wheel, Implore the whip, or puff upon the fire, So I implore you, fervently resigned! Come; I would drink nepent...

"Cygnus"  Monotype Print Cygnus is among the most recognizable and brightest constellations in the Northern sky from June to December.   Look up. Of course those are heavenly wings spread; a beak and tail!   Yes, I see a swan! According to Ovid, Cygnus was a close friend, maybe lover, of Phaethon.   Phaethon died (by his grandfather Zeus’s lightening bolt) when he recklessly scorched the earth while driving the family’s (Sun) chariot. Poor Cygnus’s grief for his beloved transformed him into a swan fearful of fire from heaven and so he chose to live in damp marshes, lakes and rivers. “As he mourned, his voice became thin and shrill, and white feathers hid his hair. His neck grew long, stretching out from his breast, his fingers reddened and a membrane joined them together. Wings clothed his sides, and a blunt beak fastened on his mouth. Cygnus became a new kind of bird: but he put no trust in the skies, or in Zeus, for he remembered how that god had unjust...

 VCA's Koch Gallery presents: The 11th Annual Masters in Miniature Exhibition   Small works of art encourage us to get up close and personal with the piece. Once we are drawn in we are often surprised by the unexpected. That's one of the inspirations behind the Vashon Center for the Arts Koch Gallery 11th Annual Miniature Exhibition.    Below is "Morning" (6x6 in.)  One of several images I have in this show Show. The exhibition showcase works by over 30 Island artists. On view December 1-22, 2017 

  "Isfahan" Ltd Edition Giclee Print 6.5 x 6.5 in. Sacred Circles The circle is said to represent wholeness, softness, completion, inclusion, the life cycle, heaven-hell and eternity. That’s a lot to embody for a seemingly simple shape! Circles are sacred symbols for a reason.  Circles are a natural, physical phenomena that best describe our round planet circling the light of a round, life-giving sun.  Earth’s cycle, as circle, occurs over, over and again in the myriad planet, star, relationships of our expanding universe.  Scientists who look at the spiral building blocks of nature, our DNA, find stacked interlocking circles. 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 images about circle reflect the symbolic nature of circle.  Their names reference the sacred sites, temples, cathedrals that more often than not were built and built again upon...