Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

  The Bainbridge Arts and Crafts Gallery Exhibition, Art Couture , opens Friday, March 5th.  I had fun with this theme and look forward to seeing the other work. Kali: Fashionable Diva, is one of two print assemblages I made for the Art Couture exhibit.  Kali is the celebrated Hindu goddess associated with time and energy and redemption.  I often write about what I am working on and this is my poem about Kali. Kali Pearl like skulls adorn her breast, Cosmic garlands of conquest, Bone white trophies from a bloody occupation. She is multiform and formless, Fiercely stylish, shaped by grace, The seed of change, the sower and the reaper. Born to war, protect her own, Judge and recreate the dance, She is the “killer” goddess we call mother. We are her miracles of chance, Of birth and death through happenstance. Goddess Kali is our vehicle of deliverance. BF, 2010 Kali is an Assemblage of Monotype Print, Wood, Paint and Kid Leath...

Tickets are still available for the Equal Rights Washington Gala and Auction (March, 6, 2010).  This fundraiser and celebration promises to be another spectacular event  held to help finance this important political advocacy organization for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community of Washington State. Check out their website at:  http://www.equalrightswashington.org Emmy award winner, comedienne and actress Judy Gold is the guest star this year. I have donated my Monotype “Kita-Ku Wrestlers” (posted above) for auction.  Kita- Ku Wrestlers is one of an ongoing series of  paper-cut Monotype print collage whose subject is wrestling. “Kita-Ku Wrestlers” is  19.5” x 27”.

The Silverwood Gallery’s 2010 Invitational show is opening on Friday February Fifth.  This year’s theme is Flower Power !  Ninety plus artists are participating.  When I dropped off my monotype assemblage Unfolding yesterday, Eric Heffelfinger had just begun hanging what promises to be a remarkable show. Eric and Margaret Heffelfinger, artists and owners of Silverwood Gallery on Vashon Island, Washington, began their themed invitational exhibits several years ago.  The shows are always a visual treat and sometimes present a real challenge for the artist to create work within the parameters of the chosen theme.   My entry, a Monotype and wood assemblage, is titled Unfolding is an attempt to visually describe the evolving process of growth affected by a changing environment or fluctuations of fortune. Unfolding is approximately 22” X 14” X 2”.  Photo by Charles Backus.

The 2009 Vashon Island Holiday Art Studio Tour has come and gone.  My studio is a bit off the beaten track (even by Vashon standards), so I was surprised and very encouraged by the numbers of people willing to brave the cold and the unknown in search of art. I want to thank Tiffany Huslig,  Sooze Bloom de Leon Grossman and Benjamin Grossman for the wonderful artwork they created to exhibit during the tour and to say thank you one more time to my family and friends for traveling long distances to help make the tour so much fun and such a success. I had many, many inspiring conversations with art patrons and fellow artists during the tour.  Making art is a peak experience for me and the next best thing to making art is talking about art. Thanks so much for your interest, patronage and for visiting my studio. Above are shots of my print studio in exhibition attire.  Below is a shot of some of Tiffany Huslig’s beautiful ornaments.

This evening I am posting an image of my (still a little wet) painting, Achilles Complex . It will be exhibited for sale in my studio during the Vashon Island Art Studio Tour. When Thetis became convinced that her son Achilles would die if drafted into war with Troy she hid him on the island of Scyros, disguised as a girl, among the daughters of Lycomedes.  (Imagine a young Brad Pitt in a dress.) The Roman poet Statius wrote about the repressed Achilles, his sexual awakening among his “sisters” and the subsequent end to his feminine masquerade by Ulysses in his poem “The Achilleid.” Based on this mythic evidence psychiatrist Demetrian Delias suggests that the violence and aggression that the adult Achilles manifests might be traced to trauma that began during this pre-Oedipal period. The person who suffers from an Achilles Complex is dominated by sadistic, murderous impulses that may be turned against the self or may ultimately be enacted against others.  Achilles ...

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 Stud...

Tiffany Huslig’s beaded holiday ornaments are remarkable, beautifull, one-of-a-kind designs.  Made from the artist’s collection of glass and metal beads.  Each handknotted beadwork ornament incorporates traditional and original beading patterns and stitches.  I am delighted that Tiffany is exhibiting with me during the Vashon Island Studio Tour,  December 5-6, 12-13, 10am-4pm.  See the  tour map at: www.VashonIslandArtStudioTour.com.   Above and below are examples of her unique art.