Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

The Titans were deities of Greece’s mythic Golden Age.  Born of Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Sky) the twelve Titans who ruled the universe were the brothers Kronos, Koios, Krios, Iapetos, Hyperion, Okeanos and their sisters and consorts Theia, Rhea, Themis, Memsoyte, Phoebe and Tethys. Kois, Krios, Iapetos and Hyperion were each associated with a cardinal point representing the four great pillars which in early myth separated the earth from sky and later supported the entire cosmos. Kronos (Time) represented the fixed point, around which the world/cosmos ticked, while Okenos was the river/ocean or fabric wherein the world/cosmos moved. In this Monotype, Kronos is depicted as a Sphinx, symbol of question and answer,  the cosmological constraint or constant that simultaneously embodies the past, present and future. Posted above is an image of my Monotype Titans mounted on wood panel, 14 1/8 x 35 1/2 in.    Look for Titans on the Vashon Holiday Studio Tour at my studio (#1

I have been listening to Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel as I work on a new comission. The book is constructed around letters from his daughter Sour Maria Celeste and is about Galileo Galilei's life as the foremost Italian scholar of the seventeenth century, his earth shaking discoveries, all framed by his eventual clash with Catholic doctrine. I am often drawn to the investigation of definition as subject or the edges of redefinition. The place where one myth is replaced by another or the explanation that reflects current discovery and the truths of a new epoch take hold. The science and art of Italy in the seventeenth century were all about new truths and redefinition of the accepted truth. While listening to Galileo's Daughter I have been working on several images and a commission who's subject is “Pillars of the World.” These originally began with a Monotype print titled Telamones. Telamones are the male equivalent of the female Caryatids