Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Brian Fisher, "The Green Man", Monotype Print with Gold Leaf, 10 x 29 in. The Greenman by XTC   Please to bend down for the one called the Greenman He wants to make you his bride Please to bend down for the one called the Greenman Forever to him you're tied And you know for a million years he has been your lover He'll be a million more And you know for a million years he has been your lover Down through the skin to the core Heed the Greenman Heed the Greenman Please to dance round for the one called the Greenman He wants to make you his child Please to dance round for the one called the Greenman Dressed in the fruits of the wild And you know for a million years he has been your father He'll be a million more And you know for a million years he has been your father Run to his arms at the door Lay your head, lay your head, lay your head, lay your head on the Greenman Lay your head, lay your head with mine Lay your head, lay y...

Katsura is my Green Man collograph named for the beautiful Katsura tree, native to China and  Japan.  Please visit Brian Fisher Studio and Katsura during the Vashon Island Art Studio Tour May 6,7-13-14. This Green Man is inspired by the mythic Japanese Kodama, spirit guardians and animated souls of the mountain forests of Japan.  Kodama spirits are revered by Japanese as gods and protectors  of trees. The Kodama bless the land around their forest with fertility.  The villagers who find Kodama inhabited trees designate them with sacred rope known as a Shimenawa.   Japan honors nature and these sacred Kodoma spirit trees are often found within the grounds of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.

The mythic Green Man represents a union of humanity and the vegetative world.  He is the sacrificial human conduit and connection to the plant cycle of birth, reproduction, revitalization and resurrection. Known by many names, through time and a spectrum of cultures, including but not limited to: Dionysos, Orpheus, Osiris, Adonis, Cernnunos, Khidir etc… he is the god born to sacrifice and through his union with the goddess to be born again.   Historically, his seasonal incarnation was worshiped locally.   My print Atticus (man of Attica) celebrates the area of Greece that includes the region centered on the Attic peninsula that projects into the Agean Sea , encompass ing the city of Athens, capital of Greece.  Atticus is the first of many Collograph images I have made to celebrate The Green Man.