Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

The Argonauts  Monoprint  (12.5 x 32.5 in.) The Argonauts is another of my new Monoprints created for exhibition at the Vashon Hardware Store Restaurant Gallery.  The show comes down at the end of August but I am happy to say it was captured for posterity or at least for a few cyber years by Google Maps.  Click here to go to Google Maps and the restaurant interior.  Take the virtual tour to the back and right of the restaurant bar, down the hallway and Gallery and see my Monotypes and Monoprints, Rust Prints and Oil paintings. What a Kick!  Let me know which one's you like.

The Calydonian Boar is one of many new Monoprints and paintings on display in my solo show at the Hardware Store Restaurant Gallery , August 3 thru September 5.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Vashon First Friday opening reception.  Thank you friends and patrons for stopping by to see what art I have been making this past spring and early summer. The Hardware Store Resturant and Gallery is a celebrated destination Vashon eatery and unique venue for artists. Thank you Hardware Store Restaurant and Gallery owner Melinda Sontgerath and manager Alex Van Amburg for an invitation to show in the gallery. The Calydonian Boar hunt in Greek myth celebrates the victorious hero Meleager and heroine Atlanta.  They are each also part of the Argonautica crew and the epic quest for the Golden Fleece.

"Europa"   Monoprint,  21 x 21 in. The Roman poet Ovid wrote of Europa’s seduction by Zeus- And gradually she lost her fear, and he Offered his breast for her virgin caresses, His horns for her to wind with chains of flowers Until the princess dared to mount his back Her pet bull's back, unwitting whom she rode. Then—slowly, slowly down the broad, dry beach— First in the shallow waves the great god set His spurious hooves, then sauntered further out Till in the open sea he bore his prize Fear filled her heart as, gazing back, she saw The fast receding sands. Her right hand grasped A horn, the other lent upon his back Her fluttering tunic floated in the breeze. "Europa" is one of many new prints and paintings on display in my solo show at the Hardware Store Restaurant Gallery August 3 thru September 5 with the opening reception August 3 at 6pm.

The Shield of Achilles ,  Monoprint, (29 3/4" x 19 1/2") The Shield Of Achilles by W. H. Auden She looked over his shoulder 
for ritual pieties, 
white flower-garlanded heifers, 
libation and sacrifice, 
but there on the shining metal 
where the altar should have been, 
she saw by his flickering forge-light 
quite another scene. Barbed wire enclosed an arbitrary spot 
where bored officials lounged (one cracked a joke) 
and sentries sweated for the day was hot:  a crowd of ordinary decent folk 
watched from without and neither moved nor spoke 
as three pale figures were led forth and bound 
to three posts driven upright in the ground. 

 The mass and majesty of this world, all 
that carries weight and always weighs the same 
lay in the hands of others; they were small 
and could not hope for help and no help came: 
what their foes like to do was done, their shame 
was all the worst could wish; they lost their pride 
and died as men before their bodies died. She l

Northwind Art Center in Port Townsend WA is hosting an exhibit of fine art prints this month (July 6-29). The show called “The Printmakers Hand” was juried by Sam Davidson of Davidson Galleries, Seattle WA and sponsored by Port Townsend printmakers guild Corvidae Press .   I was pleased to have Amphora Asterion , a Monoprint from my Asterion series, selected to hang in “The Printmaker’s Hand II”. Amphora Asterion was created using paper stencils, Collograph and by printing dry pigment into wet ink.  I am often inspired by Greek Black and Red amphora painting.  This new print was the first of many exploring amphora shapes as backgrounds and subjects.

Poem By Kay Ryan I marveled at how generally I was aided, " the autobiography of Charles Darwin" 
 I marvel at how generally I am aided, how frequently the availability of help is demonstrated. I’ve had unbridgeable distances collapse and opposite objects coalesce enough to think duress itself may be a prayer. Perhaps not chance, but need selects; and desperation works upon giraffes until their necks can reach the necessary branch. If so, help alters; makes seven vertebrae go farther in the living generation; help coming from us, not from the fathers not to the children. Bless Kay Ryan and her words. She so aptly describes our evolution and also the reach that exceeds the grasp that is creative process.  For the past two months I have been attempting to churn ideas and stories into image.  Above are prints in process.

The 22nd Annual Vashon Island Garden Tour, Saturday June 23, and Sunday, June 24, 10 am to 5 pm, is an offering of five unique gardens with features that will delight your senses.  Read all about the tour here: Vashon Garden Tour. I will be showing and selling my art cards and cut steel “Threshold Guardians,” garden art personifying myth and boundaries, at the Garden Art Market during the tour.  The image above featuring Zeus as a black swan is a sample of my “Guardian” garden stakes. The Garden Art Market is open to the public 10 am to 5 pm both Saturday and Sunday.  You will find the market conveniently located mid island on Vashon Hwy. and on the former K2 building front lawn.  The Garden Market will feature 20 artists, food and musical entertainment.  I will see you there rain or shine!