Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

"Guardian" oil on canvas, 28 x 24 in. Guardian is one of two paintings among many prints in my exhibit at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island, November 3-27.  I was inspired to reinterpret my monotype print "Guardian" in paint when I read these words from one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins. "It is hard to speak of these things how the voices of light enter the body and begin to recite their stories how the earth holds us painfully against its breast made of humus and brambles how we who will soon be gone regard the entities that continue to return greener than ever, spring water flowing through a meadow and the shadows of clouds passing over the hills and the ground where we stand in the tremble of thought taking the vast outside into ourselves." from the poem “Directions” by Billy Collins "The entities that continue to return," are symbolized in the Nyads, Kodama, and Green Men....

"Spirit of the Woods" monoprint with gold leaf,  8 3/4 x 25 in. My Monoprint “Spirit of the Woods” shows at Roby King Gallery , November 3-27, 2017, when Denise Kester and I exhibit our personal interpretations of myth in print and paint.  My work is about the myths I’ve been exploring: vegetative deities like Europe's “Green Man”, Japan’s “Kodama” and the Greek myths about Goddesses Demeter and Persephone. I grew up on the high plains of northwestern Kansas.  Demeter would be at home there where grain (wheat and corn) rules, but unless they are planted and nurtured, trees there are rare.  Perhaps that is why I've always recognized what is special and sacred in trees and why I am drawn to these ancient vegetative stories that exist across cultures. "The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life and activity; it afford...

I'm matting and framing today in preparation for the second weekend of the Vashon Island Art Studio Tour.  The first weekend was well attended with good sales!

Brian Fisher, "The Pull of the Earth" 84x60 in.  oil on canvas, 1985 Haikus on Gravity by Philip Hart For the weakest force, A simple poem form, for the Least understood force. The sun does not set, Leaving the world in darkness - The world turns away. To move forward, you Must lift yourself from the ground And let yourself fall.   Only the weakest Of the four forces directs The paths of the stars.   The moon falls earthward, The earth falls into the sun, And both keep missing.   Puffy, lazy clouds - Daring gravity to do Something about it.   Her body bends light, Pulls on the planets and stars - How should I resist?  I've been making images of Green Men and tree people for as long as I can remember, at least since I first read J. R. Tolkien's descriptions of Fangorn forest and it's tree shepherds.  This painting, The Pull of the Earth is from a series that explored relationship, desire and the mysterious force that is physical attraction....

My Green Man Albus Darach is a more traditional representation of the Green Man, or "foliate head” of the British Isles.  You may find Albus Darach in my Studio, no.16 with his Green Man collograph print siblings, during the Vashon Island Art Studio Tour, May 6-7 & 13-14, 2017. Darach is Gaelic for "Oak tree.” Around him you can see the leaves and acorns of the tree and rectangular portals representing passage, change or transformation.  The Oak is almost synonymous with strength, steadfastness and historically is associated with the sacred groves and forests of of the Druids. The Roman Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus lived in Gaul during the 1st century CE and wrote that Druid priests performed all their religious rites in Oak groves, where they gathered mistletoe from the trees with a golden sickle.  Dense forests of Oak covered most of Northern Europe at that time and the tree's human-like attributes of trunk/body, branches/arms, twigs/fingers, and sap/bloo...

Baobab is Africa's tree and also what I have named my Green Man collograph. Baobab trees are  indigenous to 31 African countries.  Because the Baobab has a fibrous bark  and has no tree rings, it’s not clear how long the tree lives, though experts say a Baobab may live for 500 years, others estimate as many as 2000! By any standard the Baobab is the living elder of plants on a continent which reveres elders. Many myths and legends are associated with the Baobab.  Stories of the mischievous spirits that reside within them were collected by  explorers of East and West Africa in the early twentieth century.  In the Northern Cape Province of South Africa some people still believe wood spirits inhabit the flowers of the Baobab and it's said that those who pick them will be eaten by lions! In many African communities the tree is recognized as a deity who has decided to live among humans. Village life and it's rituals are celebrated beneath it.  In B...

Artist Valerie Willson shared her approach to collograph in a couple wonderful workshops at Vashon's Quartermaster Press.  We attached thin materials like paper and cloth to plexiglass plates with gloss acrylic medium and created texture with modeling paste.  The result was a very sturdy collograph plate. Inspired by what I learned, I've been exploring the process in a series of prints about myth in nature.  Here is a drawing and collograph plate of "Atticus," from my Green Man series. Collagraph, collograph, no matter how you spell it, 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.  I now employ both methods when making my own collographs.  Below is a ...