Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

My cut steel sculpture "Asterion, The Starry One" exhibits Feb 7- March 1, 2020 at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island in "A Trio of Print-makers".  Opening reception is  Feb. 7 6-8 pm.   Crete’s mythic civilization began when Zeus (as bull) abducted Europa from a Phoenician beach and swam into the setting sun until arriving on the Aegean island of Crete.  To their union three children were born, Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon.  Europa became queen of Crete upon marrying Crete's reigning King Asterion and he stepfather to her children.  Upon his death the children warred as successors and when Minos defeated his brothers to become King he prayed that Poseidon, God of the Seas, send him a bull to sacrifice in recognition that his Kingship was divinely sanctioned.  Poseidon’s gift, a beautiful pure white bull, The Cretan Bull, The Bull From The Sea, appeared as petitioned but Minos instead elected to substitute another bull and kept t...

My Monotype "The Minotaur" will exhibit in Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island, January Jan 3 - Feb 2 with work from two other Vashon Island Artists, Susan Lowery and Pam Ingalls. Check us out! Crete’s mythic history begins with the abduction by Zeus (as bull) of Europa, a princess of Phoenicia and a long swim to the shores of Greece's largest island.  With their union, Europa became the first queen of the island kingdom of Crete, powerhouse of the Aegean and subsequently the namesake of Europe.   When Minos, a descendant of Zeus and Europa, defeated his brothers to become King he prayed that Poseidon, God of the Aegean Sea who's waters surrounded Crete, send him a gift/sacrifice in recognition that his Kingship was divinely sanctioned, his prayers were answered (kind of). Poseidon’s gift, a beautiful pure white bull, The Bull From The Sea, appeared as petitioned but Minos decided instead of sacrificing the bull to substitute another as tribute and kept...

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...