Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

"Birth of Athena"  8 x 4 in.  A couple times this summer I have taken tile workshops with Vashon Island artist Cory Winn.  She makes truly exquisite and intricately patterned pottery, objects, tiles and tile installations.  Influenced by early English arts and crafts and medieval illustrations, Cory's work is meticulously crafted and then glazed using the cuerda seca technique. Cuerda seca, (Spanish for "dry cord") is essentially a wax resist line painted to separate the water-soluble glazes.  It is an ancient technique that can make crisp patterns and multiple colors on fired terracotta sing!   Cory is a great teacher and I am quite taken with the whole process.  You know you are having fun when minutes turn to hours and an afternoon has flown! My tile at left celebrates the cerebral birth of Athena, Goddess of wisdom, daughter of  Zeus and the Titan Metis. When Zeus heard the prophecy that a child Metis bore would usurp his thrown, ...

Monotype Print 36 x 15 in. Pallas Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, warfare, arts, crafts, agriculture and namesake patron of the city of Athens is sometimes said to be the child of Zeus alone.  Zeus did give birth to her, but only after swallowing the Oceanid Metis, already pregnant by him, in an attempt to thwart the prophecy that a child of their union would be greater than mighty Zeus. This was of course the unhappy end of Metis but the unborn child continued to grow, gestating in Zeus's head and troubling him with terrible headaches.  Eventually, so great was his pain, he begged Hephaestus to strike him with his great axe whereupon Pallas Athena sprang from her father’s head fully armed. My Monotype The Birth of Pallas Athena , along with another four of my Monotype prints will be displayed at the Roby King Galleries on Bainbridge Island during their 2011 Print Exhibition, October 7-27 with an Artist’s Reception October 7 from 6-8 PM.