Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

"Petra" is the legendary rose-red city of the Nabataean people and a monotype print collage I just completed to show in the VIVA 2023 Holiday Art Studio Tour.  The ancient city of Petra, is dramatically concealed behind a wall of mountains, pierced only by the Siq Canyon of Jordan. Built in the 3rd century BC by Nabataeans, who carved beautiful palaces, temples, tombs, storerooms and stables from the soft, red, sandstone cliffs.  Petra is one of my "Magic Carpet Ride" cut monotype paper series, exhibiting in VIVA’s 2023 Holiday Studio Tour   Dec. 2-3 & 9-10 . Check out my studio, #2 on the VIVA Tour Map , and Petra, this Vashon Holiday Art Studio Tour!  

Nineveh , Monotype collage with 24k gold, 19 1/2" x 28 1/2" on Somerset Velvet Paper   Danny Kopsak and I will show in "Cut and Paste" at Vashon Center for the Arts Gallery, Aug 11-27, 2023. Opening Aug 11, 5-8pm. The title of our show "Cut and Paste" describes a critical part of the process we each undertake to create compositions cut from paper. My monotype print collage, Nineveh, is one of eight pattern compositions inspired by ancient cities of the Middle East, first printed, then cut and collaged, in a series I call- Magic Carpet Ride! Nineveh the ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, was located on the outskirts of Mosul in modern-day northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and was the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Check it all out this month at Vashon Center for the Arts during the Summer Arts Festival!

"Damascus" is a monotype print collage from my Magic Carpet Ride series for “Cut and Paste” showing with paper cut artist Danny Kopsak’s new work at Vashon Center Gallery. Opening Aug 11, 5-8, exhibiting through Aug 27, in VCA's Summer Arts Festival 2023. “Whoever would sit upon this carpet and will it to be taken up and set down upon another site, shall, in the twinkling of an eye, be borne thither, whether that place be near at hand, or distant many a day's journey and difficult to reach.” It is said that Solomon’s magic carpet was made with a warp of green silk and weft of golden thread. It was sixty miles long and sixty miles wide. When he sat upon the carpet he was caught up by the wind and flew so quickly that he could breakfast in Damascus and dine in Media.

  Helios, Oil on Canvas over panel, 16 x 16 in. I'm framing "Helios" today, the last of my work to be framed in preparation for the 2023 Spring VIVA Art Studio Tour, May 6-7 & 13-14, Sats & Suns, 10am-5pm.  I am lucky #13 on the tour map this year! I was delighted to have one of my sunflower paintings selected for this years brochure and poster.  Check it out here, VIVA Art Tour , along with all the other wonderful studios and galleries on the Vashon Island Visual Artists (VIVA) studio tour!

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.

  "Jacob Dreams of Angels" is my monotype print, (1/1), with silver metal leaf, currently on exhibit at  Vashon Center for the Arts Gallery, Jan 6-29, 2023 in The Notable Collection .   The Torah and the Bible tell of Jacob’s vivid dream about a stairway or ladder to heaven with angels ascending and descending. It is in this dream that the God of his grandfather Abraham and father Isaac, appears to Jacob and promises the land that he sleeps upon to his descendants and that through Jacob and his descendants that all the families of the earth shall find blessing. What a profound dream and the ladder a powerful symbol of connection between the physical and an unknown where dreams are sourced or realized.

“Raguel, Angel of Winter”, monotype print with 24k gold. According to Judaic tradition, is the leader of angels, known as Principalities, who are responsible for the administration of justice on Earth and among angels. Raguel is the messenger who shares the importance of tolerance so that all may live in peace. He delivers justice with fairness, harmony, with vengeance and redemption. Raguel is also known as an Angel of Winter because of his cool and tranquil deliverance when administering justice. I just finished framing Raquel for the 2022 Holiday VIVA Art Studio Tour, the first two weekends in December. You can preview the tour at- https://vivartists.com/viva/

Gabriel, Angel of Communication, Oil on canvas over panel, 36 x 24 in. The English word angel, derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, means messenger.   No where in the Bible are these messengers described as winged nor are they represented in that way in early Christian art.   Sometime in the later part of the 4th century however, Angels appear suddenly to have grown them or at least artwork began depicting divine messengers complete with wings and another fashionable innovation of the period, halos.   My Angel imagery is primarily inspired by the paintings of the early Italian Renaissance artist Fra Angelico.   I have always admired his various depictions of the Annunciation and his rendering of Angel Gabriel's technicolor wings! Gabriel and other paintings in oil and monotype print are in my show about angel story August 5- 28, at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island.  Opening night is 1st Friday aug 5th, 6-8pm.

  Vashon Art Studio Tour is back!!!  And here's my monotype print "A Chorus of Angels" singing hallelujah!!!

“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...

  This is my painting of Lailah, Angel of Conception, Angel of Night , oil on canvas over panel, 36 x 24 in. currently at Vashon Center for the Arts Gallery on Vashon Island WA. Angels are typically considered genderless, but Lailah is described as feminine in Midrash (commentary on Hebrew scriptures, attached to biblical text). In this tradition, she teaches the unborn spirt the Torah before birth and provides each a candle so that it can see its path in the world to come. In the moment that the spirt is born to this world, Lailah blows out the candle and strikes the child’s upper lip, causing the new babe to forget everything, but leaving the indention we all have above our upper lips. This is said to be the physical reminder of original knowledge and prompt to unlearn our way back to God. I was unfamiliar with this story until researching angel mythology, but it called to mind that experience we all have, at least while young, of knowing something rather than learning somet...

Missing Holiday Art Studio Tour?   You can shop Brian Fisher Art Studio by scheduling a visit! VIVA, Vashon Island Visual Artists, the organization responsible for Art Tour, created Art by Appointment so that you can safely connect with (more than 70) participating island artists.  So, don't be shy, make your appointment today!  Contact: Brian@BrianFisherArt.com  Link here, Art by Appointment , for all participating artists and their contact information.  All COVID protocols observed for mutual safety.

The Vashon Heritage Museum has hosted the award winning exhibit "In and Out, Being LGBTQ on Vashon Island" since June of 2019.  Originally slated to run until March of 2020 it's been on exhibit until this week, September 6, 2021.   I'm honored to have been asked to create five window panels for the exhibit and be a part of the creative process envisioned by Deb Phillimore, Ellen Kritzman. Stephen Silha, Jesica De Wire, Bruce Haulman and the inspired advisory board they assembled. We all identify with the music of our time.  I asked friends to share the music they identified as significant in their lives, relationships and coming out story.  Their music inspired the monotype/collagraph prints with cut and printed wood sculpture that became the Let's All Dance window panels for the exhibit.  The panels were each 68 x 36 in. and titled (in the order above) Small Town Boy, The Band Played On, Let's All Dance, Anthem and Break Free. Here's a wonderful ...

  Mystras, an oil on canvas painting is my contribution to the 2021 Vashon Center for the Arts Gala Art Auction  at Vashon Center for the Arts Gallery. The auction begins First Friday, September 3, with hundreds of works generously donated by island artists, as well as dozens of unique one-of-a-kind experiences. Bidding will take place for three weeks from September 3 until September 24 and will close at the start of the Gala Livestream event at 7PM on September 24. All items will be featured online and in the VCA gallery. If you'd like to see the art in person, gallery hours are Wed thru Sun from 12-5PM. Mystras is named for the archaeological site and Byzantine city in the Peloponnese of modern Greece, where ruins of churches and palaces, houses, and bridges, were built on a steep mountain slope. Its ruins tell the story of a beautiful city that once flourished as the provincial capital of the Byzantine Despotate of Morea. Founded in 1248 by William II of Villehardouin, Fran...

My spin on Aesop's fable,  The Fox & Hare, (m onotype print, with 24k gold leaf), is one of my many fable based prints on exhibit in "On Being Human" at Roby King Gallery, 176 Winslow Way E. Bainbridge Island WA, September 3-26. So the story goes-   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.” ...

My Monotype Print, A Decampment of Djinn will be in the Printmakers' Hand V Exhibit at Northwind Art Best Gallery in Port Townsend, WA September 2 - October 31.  Sponsored by Corvidae Press print collective of Port Townsend.  Artist, Marit Berg is the 2021 juror for this much-loved biennial show.  Here's a YouTube link to this wonderful exhibit.  

Aletheia and the Bedtime Story, my monotype print (1/1), will exhibit in ”On Being Human”,  At Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island, Sept. 3-26, 2021.  Link here to the gallery and more of my work on display at Roby King. Myths and Fables are often read and told as entertainment, but as we know, the truth is in the telling and the power of truth, we hope, wins out.   My print is a bit of a visual pun on the name Aletheia, who was the Greek Goddess of truth, truth revealed, the naked truth… she is more familiar in Latin as Veritas.   Aesop, who’s teaching stories inspired my latest “fable” print series, tells two fables about the Goddess of Truth, Aletheia. In one, a man traveling in the wild discovers Aletheia living alone, far from civilization and asks her why she dwells in the wilderness.   She replies, “ Among the people of old, only a few told and repeated lies, but now those who lie exist throughout all of human society! ”   From this fable we learn...

Sting Like a Bee, monotype print with 24K gold, for the “On Being Human” exhibit at Roby King Gallery, September 3-26, 2021  Bees have existed for perhaps 130 million years. An estimated 65 million years ago some of them survived the meteor that struck earth, caused global temperatures to drop and brought the extinction of larger mammals. Some of those bees had already evolved a social lifestyle, like Apis mellifera Linnaeus, the western Honeybee. Along with hive mentality they also evolved a way to defend themselves, a sting. We, the descendants of smaller mammals who also survived destruction, are dependent for sustenance on pollinating bees.  My monotype print “Sting Like a Bee” depicts one of Aesop’s teaching fables that present flora and fauna as characters with human fallibilities. The Queen of the Bees could bear it no longer. Humans were forever plundering her hives of honey, so she decided to petition Zeus for justice and a means of defense. She gathered t...

  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...