Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Medusa, my monotype print, will exhibit at Roby King Gallery , Bainbridge Island WA, Feb 7- March 1, 2020 in "A Trio of Print-makers" with work by Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve McFarlane. So delighted to be part of this talented lineup!  The opening Reception is Feb 7, 6-8 pm. Check it Out! The Myths of Medusa and Perseus have been told and retold for time out of mind and the image of Medusa as Gorgon can be found in art and architecture for thousands of years.  Even today she appears on the flag of Sicily and ever since Gianni Versace adopted Medusa as his logo in 1978 her iconic image has become even more pervasive. 

The eighth century BC poet Hesiod, of Boeotia, composed a poem, the Theogony, about the creation of the world and the Greek gods.  In it he describes the Gorgons, the mortal Medusa, whose name comes from the old verb médô that means “I rule,” and her two immortal sisters, Sthenno or “strength” and Euryale “the one that leaps or wand...

Vashon Allied Arts’s monthly publication Island Arts selected my Rust Print, Triton , for the November cover and to represent our Journey exhibit currently at the Blue Heron Gallery! Triton, herald and son of Poseidon calmed storms and frightened the immortals when he blew upon the conch shell that was his symbol.   When the Argonauts found themselves lost in the deserts of Libya, blown inland by storm, Triton in the guise of an ordinary but incredibly strong man carried their ship Argo to the shores of Lake Tritonis.   Recognizing that the miraculous had taken place a sheep was offered as sacrificed by the Argonauts and Triton who had disappeared into the waters of the lake reappeared in his true form to accept their sacrifice and point them their way.   A favorite poem of my mothers was the Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Homes. It references Triton’s wreathed horn and I hear her voice when I read these final stanzas... Thanks for the he...

Today I am posting an image of and detail from The Bull from the Sea. It’s a Monotype I have just completed and will be displaying when I open my studio for Vashon Island’s Holiday Studio Tour, the first two weekends in December. Lately I have been reading about bulls and the richly various rolls they have played in human history. If you are familiar with the myth of the Minotaur you may remember to what the tittle refers. Archaeological discoveries of ceremonial objects and art from numerous Paleolithic, Neolithic, and particularly in Minoan and Mycenaean sites attest a long symbolic life giving connection of the bull, to seasonal waters, vegetative regeneration and the incarnate generative force of the Goddess. Dorothy Cameron in her book “Symbols of Birth and Death in the Neolithic Period” offers diagrammatic comparison that the likeness of the head and horns of the bull in Neolithic art may also be a symbolic depiction of the female reproductive organs. Cretan culture is ric...