Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Mauna Kea, from my sacred circle series, informed by sacred sites, sacred geographies, is a Ltd. Edition, Original Digital Print (1/12). It was created in 2019 but has never been exhibited until now. Stop by my studio 23520 147 Ave SW, Vashon Island, ( #3 ) during the 2022 VIVA Holiday Art Studio Tour , the first two weekends in December. My print “Mauna Kea” is inspired by the most prominent geographic feature of the Hawaiian Islands, a volcanic mountain named Mauna Kea and by the incredible stick maps that Polynesian and Micronesian sailor explorers once made and used to chart Pacific open water travel. In Hawaiian traditions of creation, the Earth Mother, Papahānaumoku, and the Sky Father, Wākea, created the Hawaiian Islands, with Hawai‘i Island being the first and Mauna Kea as the piko (navel or center of beginning or ending), of their union. On Mauna Kea’s sides are many shrines to the pantheon of Hawaiian gods and (it has been suggested) to astronomical phenomena. The top of Maun...

Mauna Kea, Sacred Circle, is inspired by the most prominent geographic feature of the island of Hawai’i, the mountain volcano Mauna Kea and by the stick maps that Polynesian and Micronesian sailers once made and used to chart their open water travel. In Hawaiian traditions of creation, the Earth Mother, Papahānaumoku, and the Sky Father, Wākea, created the Islands, with Hawai‘i Island being the first and the mountain, the piko (navel or center of a beginning or ending), of their creation.   On the mountains sides are many shrines to the pantheon of Hawaiian gods and (it has been suggested) to astronomical phenomena.  The top of Mauna Kea was historically considered kapu and only accessible to priests and the highest chiefs but, beginning in the late 1960s, a number of large telescope observatories have been built at the 13,796 ft. summit where the air is cold, dry and visibility of the heavens is near perfect. In 2019 the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope, was stoped ...