Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Yerevan (with detail), is a monotype print collage in my Magic Carpet Ride series. Called The Pink City, it’s Armenia’s capital. Yerevan is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and was founded by another name (Erebuni) in 782 B.C.E., though the territory was settled in the 4th millennium B.C.E. The Pink City gets its name by way of its building material, a pink stone called tuft, the compacted ash, from Mount Ararat that towers, at a distance, over Yerevan. Yerevan is showing in Pink, Unpacked , an exhibit presented by Seattle Print Arts that explores both pink as color and pink as concept.  March 11-May 1, 2024 at  M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery, Seattle WA.

Babylon, is one of my "Magic Carpet Ride" collage monotypes exhibiting in VIVA's 2023 Holiday Studio Tour, the first two weekends in December.  I'm #2 on the tour map.  This work is named for the ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river, in southern Mesopotamia, within contemporary Iraq and is inspired by these words describing a people dispossessed of their homes and made subject to an invading power, from the King James Bible-  By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.  

  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!

  "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.

  My latest Sacred Circle, “St Kilda” is inspired by a species of dandelion that was recently discovered on the Isle of Hirta, in the St Kilda archipelago by Jim McIntosh, a recorder of flora for the Outer Hebrides, during survey work. St Kilda lies 41 miles west of the Western Isles of Scotland. The island was abandoned by the last St Kildans in 1930 after years of slow depopulation when there were only 36 human inhabitants. Permanent habitation on the islands extends back two millennia and St Kilda is one of Scotland’s six World Heritage sites. It’s one of the few sites in the world to hold joint status for its natural and cultural qualities. There are thousands of stone structures and even two early sheep types that live on these remote islands. The Soay are sheep with linage from the Neolithic age and the Boreray are of Iron age linage. My St Kilda is an original digital archival print (edition of 12). Frame size 16” x 13”. If you are interested in this print, DM me about St Ki...

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

    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.

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 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.

"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. 

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!

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  

It's the second weekend of the VIVA Holiday Art Studio Tour.  The VIVA Studio Tour is all about connecting to the artists who create in almost every conceivable medium on Vashon.  Here's a wonderful article from the Beachcomber about this years tour- Art for Everyone! Welcome to Brian Fisher Studio, Stop #2  on the 2019 Holiday VIVA Art Studio Tour!

The 2nd weekend of the VIVA Art Studio Tour is December 14 & 15, 10-4.  Check out the 45, yes, 45 !!! studios and galleries on the 2019 Vashon Island Art Studio Holiday Tour!  My original digital print Eden (1/12), above, will be on exhibit in Brian Fisher Studio. #2 on tour.   I invite you to stop by and check out where I think and make and make ... more!  Here's a link to Jeff Hoyt's VOV, Voice of Vashon , interview with artist Pam Ingalls and with me.  It's all about why this VIVA tour and Vashon Island are so special!

Brian Fisher Studio is stop #2 on the 2019 Vashon Island Holiday Art Studio Tour.  Check out all 45 tour studios and galleries at Vashon Art Tour featuring 120 plus artists! This VIVA event is a fun and informative experience! Make a date with a friend, choose your route and experience Art on Vashon!

"Awakening", Brian Fisher, 10"x 10", original digital print Climate Change...  Do not assume rational action from reasonable humans.  To be human, it would seem, is to be irrational.  When faced with the Eco-Apocalypse we are engaged in, we prefer to deny scientific facts and at the same time assume science will “fix” our future.  If there ever was a common cause we are neck deep in it, each connected, one to the other and solely dependent on earth, our mother, for any kind of future.  Awake!  Please!  Now!

The Bull of Heaven,  monotype print, Brian Fisher Taurus is perhaps the most prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere’s winter sky. One of the oldest described constellations, dating at least from the early Bronze Age when it marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox, Taurus is symbol for the bull in the oldest mythologies of Sumer/Babylon, Egypt, India, Minoan Crete and Greece. Wild bulls of Europe and Asia were huge, possibly as large as 6 feet at the shoulder, Whether referenced in visual art or described in writing the bull was venerated as the embodiment of supernatural strength and virility. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero Gilgamesh angered Innana, (Sumerian Goddess of love, sex war, and… justice) with his refusal to be her mate.  So spurned, she called down “The Bull of Heaven” to destroy Gilgamesh, Uruk his city, drink up all the water, devour the pasture and strip the land bare. The hero Gilgamesh and his best bro,...

Enkidu, mixed media monotype print on vintage linen over panel, Brian Fisher “Dat ain't a mythic memory of pre-civilized humanity, dat's a song!” Jimmy Durante sings Inkydo! When Enkidu was a living myth, he and his best bro Gilgamesh were described and inscribed as cuneiform writing in clay.  Their story, The Epic of Gilgamesh, first written c. 2100 BCE recounts a king’s struggle with his fear of death, and his foolish quest for immortality. Enkidu was created by the gods as match, equal, companion and (thank the gods) solution to the extreme passions Gilgamesh exhibited as ruler of the Sumerian city-state, Uruk. Enkidu, a child of nature, roamed the plains of Mesopotamia (land between the rivers, modern Iraq).  His friends were beasts and he protected them by thwarting hunters and destroying their traps.  Gilgamesh eventually sends a priestess of Innana (goddes of love, sexual desire, fertility, war and justice), to tame him, re...

"Gilgamesh," mixed media rust print on vintage linen, Brian Fisher The Epic of Gilgamesh, regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature,  is an ancient Sumerian poem describing the life and ambitions of Gilgamesh the demigod, hero and king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk. The story first describes Gilgamesh as larger than life, beautiful to behold, with an expansive imagination and passions.  He’s the epitome of the civilized man.  He’s a builder, a dreamer but as it turns out, he’s also a despot. His abused and oppressed subjects pray to the gods for deliverance.  The gods respond by creating an opposite, a match, for Gilgamesh.  His name is Enkidu. He’s a natural, a wild man who's friends are the beasts of the wild.  They brawl when they meet but learn quickly to respect each other. It’s a twenty-seventh century B.C.E. bromance. With Enkidu’s tempering influence the great city of Uruk is finally ruled by a just and wise King.  G...