Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

We've all heard the phrase- "I know nothing about art but I know what I like when I see it".  Liking is a jumping off place for collecting and with collecting comes knowledge and a broader appreciation for whatever is being collected.  People collect Art for many reasons and yesterday April 28, art patrons and friends of Quartermaster Press gathered at VCA to discuss just why they collect.  It was a fun afternoon and we got to hear many personal stories from those who attended and whose collections made up the "Collectors' Wall" that was our backdrop and the focus of the event.  Thanks to everyone who could come and share the conversation. Quartermaster Press 25's next special events will be First Friday, May 4 at 5:30, a talk by Suzanne Moore about Tradition and Transformation in printmaking and at 7:00 a Multi-plate Etching Demonstration by Deborah Taylor.  For more details link here to Vashon Center for the Arts . 

Brian Fisher and Debi Shandling Crawford demonstrate Collagraphy at VCA Koch Gallery Here is a YouTube link to the Collagraphy Demonstration by Brian Fisher , filmed last weekend, April 14, when Brian Fisher and Debi Shandling Crawford demonstrated Collagraphy plate and print making in the Vashon Center for the Arts, Koch Gallery to a receptive audience of art and print enthusiasts. Thanks VCA and Rick Skillman's video crew for filming the event! Basically, a Collagraph plate is made by gluing relatively flat or thin elements to a substrate.  In this demonstration paper was glued to a plexiglass plate to create shallow relief that was then inked as an intaglio and relief plate, then printed to paper on a small etching press. This was just one of the QMP 25 special events.  Next weekend, Saturday April 28 at 1:30 Quartermaster Press and Brian Fisher will host "The Collectors Conversation" at Vashon Center for the Arts.  We’ll find out...

Brian Fisher, assisted by Debi Shandling Crawford, will share the art of Collagraphy plate and print making tomorrow, April 14, in the Vashon Center for the Arts, Koch Gallery at 1:30 pm.  Art and printmaking enthusiasts please join us to learn about this very simple way to make and print a collagraph. Collagraphy refers to a collage of materials glued to a substrate to create a printable plate.  Ink may be applied to the high surfaces of the plate with a brayer, like a relief print, or ink may be applied to the entire plate and then removed by wiping from the upper surfaces leaving ink between and around collage elements, resulting in an intaglio print.  This demo is the first of many scheduled events (check out the VCA link above for dates) in celebration of the Quartermaster Press Studio's 25 Anniversary.   Collagraphy Plates 1&2 (left) and Prints from plate 2 (right)

Last night Quartermaster Press Studio kicked off it's 25th Anniversary Celebration and retrospective exhibit with a talk by Valerie Willson.  She spoke about QMP's founding in a potting shed on Quartermaster Drive in 1993, the subsequent move to it's present location at Beall Greenhousese in 2010 and the studio's group history and the evolution of printmaking at Quartermaster Press.   Many of the founding members were present to hear Valerie briefly describe the experimentation and complexities of making fine art prints.  The Koch Gallery and Vashon Center for the Arts Lobby walls are filled with almost every kind of print process.  Valerie pointed out with explanation to examples of  etchings, viscosity monotypes, monoprints, collagraphs, linocuts,... and more! Co-curator Pat Churchill introducing Valerie Willson at QMP 25 opening April 6, 2018   Print enthusiasts and QMP fans listen to Valerie Willson speak at QMP 25 opening April 6, 2...

Vashon Island's print collective, Quartermaster Press, is celebrating it's 25th anniversary with an exhibition that features work by 31 past and current QMP members at Vashon Center for the Arts, April 6, 2018 through May 25, 2018. The first opening will begin at 5:30, April 6 when Valerie Willson will share QMP history and talk a little about print process.   More talks and demonstrations by QMP members are scheduled in April and May. The first demonstration will be about collagraphy on Saturday, April 14 at 1:30 when Brian Fisher will show how a collagraph plate is made, inked and printed. Below is "Persephone Cycle" a collagraph print, 17 1/2" x 17 1/2" by Brian.  It's one of many unique prints on display at VCA for your enjoyment.  Please join us for this visual celebration! "Persephone Cycle"  Collagraph print by Brian Fisher

Today the Quartermaster Press 25 Retrospective Exhibit, April 6 - May 25 at Vashon Center for the Arts Lobby and Koch Gallery really started coming together!  QMP printers, past and present, delivered work that will challenge and inspire viewers of this show.  Thank you QMP printers! Pat Churchill, Deborah Taylor and Devin Grimm, VCA gallery manager, received and documented what was coming in the door while Suzanne Moore and Brian Fisher began hanging "The Collectors' Wall" in the VCA lobby.  By the end of a long day everyone was involved with arranging, shifting and rearranging 39 framed prints to everyone's satisfaction, ( though tweaks to come are already anticipated)! Tomorrow the fun continues when we hang the Koch Gallery.  Here's a public preview of the Collectors' Wall.  How'd we do ? QMP 25 Collectors' Wall, Vashon Center for the Arts, Vashon Washington, 2018

Print artist Beth Dunn has been an intermittent and influential Quartermaster Press member since she first began printing at QMP in the late 1990’s.  When she gave her photo exposure machine to the Vashon Island print collective, she forever changed the equation of print variation at QMP. Below is Beth’s photo engraving “I Was of Three Minds Like the Blackbird” inspired by Wallace Stevens’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird . It will be one of many prints by QMP members exhibited on the “Collectors Wall” in the Lobby at Vashon Center for the Arts during the QMP 25 Retrospective Exhibit, April 6 through May 25, 2018. Photo Etching, Chine -collé by Beth Dunn from the collection of Brian Fisher Here is another from the ”Collectors Wall”, a collage created by Quartermaster Press artists in 2003.  It also contains a Stevens inspired compositional element by Beth Dunn. Monotype, Linocut, Photo Etching, Collage by QMP Artists f...

Jil Stenn is passionate about landscape design and has built sustainable healthy gardens throughout the Puget Sound for the last 30 years.  She is also a founding member of Quartermaster Press.   In 1993, 25 years ago, Jil Stenn and Valerie Wilson, each new to Vashon Island life, crossed paths and discovered a shared artistic love for print making.  From this meeting the seeds of Vashon Islands's QMP print cooperative were sown. Jil printed at the QMP studio until 1995 and only left when her first child was born.  She actually gave birth just after attending Quartermaster Press's very first opening exhibition at The Blue Heron Gallery, what today is named Vashon Center for the Arts and Koch Gallery . Thank you Jill for sharing your love of print and this monotype, "Where's Waldo" for the QMP  25 Exhibition at the Vashon Center for the Arts, Lobby and Koch Gallery, April 6 - May 25, 2018. Where's Waldo , Monotype by Jil Stenn

Joan Wortis began printing at Quartermaster Press soon after she arrived on Vashon Island.  Her career and background before she came to print was in fiber arts.   She says that her experince at QMP has been the cornerstone of her working method of experimenting with combining monotype and collage and she has continued to do that through many different iterations for the last 20 plus years. Joan's wonderfully textural monotype collage "Whispered Secrets" 15 x 12 in. is one of the works showing at the Quartermaster Press 25 Retrospective Exhibition in the Koch Gallery at Vashon Center for the Arts April 6 - May 25, 2018. "Whispered Secrets" monotype collage by Joan Wortis

Jenn Reidel's photo etching "She placed her ghosts in the bath in an effort to clean up her past." will be on display during the Quartermaster Press 25 Retrospective Exhibition at Vashon Center for the Arts , April 6 - May 25, 2018.   Jenn is a conceptual artist whose narrative work combines her favorite mediums of photography, performance, printmaking and writing.   She joined Quartermaster Press in 2004 and created two series, which were exhibited at Gallery 070, "Ghosts in Love" (2004) and "A Fury Tale" (2006).  She printed the images first as fine art black and white photos in a traditional darkroom and then used a photo-etching process to mimic 19th century photogravures. She transferred the photographic image onto a copperplate and printed them by hand at Quartermaster Press. "She placed her ghosts in the bath in an effort to clean up her past." Photo Etching by Jenn Reidel