Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

On September 19 and 20 Vashon Allied Arts will transform, the “O Space” into Outer Space.  This years theme is- 2014: An Art Odyssey . Two evenings of intergalactic fundraising festivities include Friday’s The Big Bang and Saturday’s A Starry Starry Night. Here you may Preview the Auction Catalog and read more about event details , but the count down begins Friday August 29 from 6-9 PM.  It's the real Preview Party and Artist Reception, honoring the artists who have donated over 150 pieces of stellar art to this year’s Art Auction. At left and below is my fantasy take on a robot family.  Maybe this is Hal's family of origin?  It's named "Nuclear Family".  These table toppers do double duty as decoration and as auction items.  Artists volunteer each year to transform similar objects into something artful. This years commissioned artist are: wood sculpture-Tom Northington, jeweler- Gordon R. Barnett, basket maker- Barbara Dusty

Fellow Artist and good friend Ilse Reimnitz and I just completed our summer Monotype Print Workshop.  Everyone who participated  brought real enthusiasm and creative energy to the weekend event. I thank each of them for jumping into the inky good time. The approaches to monotype print are many.  The basics our workshop emphasized were  reductive methods of creating compositions to print, printing with selected natural shapes, with cut paper stencils, and printing with textural found materials.   We also experimented with draw-through  techniques.  The combination of these print methods result in painterly textures and unique imagery.

The legends of Jason and the Argonauts are primal myths of Western culture.  The stories are older than those told by Homer though surviving texts were not written until centuries later. The oldest extant account, the third century B.C. Greek epic poem by Apollonius Rhodius, with additional material by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Flaccus, has informed the imagery and design for many of my "Heroes Journey" Monotype Prints.  Now, I am interpreting those mythic and seminal narratives as gates. Above is my garden entrance before installation. At left is the design for the first of three entrance gates to my home, garden and studio.  Two of those gates will illustrate the Quest for the Golden Fleece and the Heroes of the Argonautica.  A third gate will depict the Hero Theseus and his epic adventures in the Labyrinth. The gates will be cut from from 12 gage steel and mounted within 1 1/2" steel frames.  I always enjoy creating si

Mandala's debut at ArtXchange , Seattle's contemporary international art gallery, was extraordinary!  I am delighted to participate in this wonderful show and exhibit with such extraordinary artists.  Many thanks to Cora Edmonds, Gallery Director, Lauren Davis, Gallery Manager and friend Mugoux, Creative Manifestadora and the Arxchange team! The opening, during Seattle's First Thursday Gallery Walk, featured a performance by Butoh dancer Kaoru Okumura and company.  Vashon flautist, Larry Lawson accompanied their performance. The Exhibit runs July 3-August 9. I'm already looking forward to the First Thursday Artists reception on August 7, 5-8 pm.

Gnosis, Rust Monotype, 30x30 in. ArtXchange Gallery’s new exhibit, Mandala: Contemporary Interpretations of the Ancient Form (Opening July 3, 5-8pm, thru August 9, 2014) features nine artists (Nola Avienne, Sarah Barrick, Eric Carson, Brian Fisher, Carl Gombert, Terra Holcomb, Chris Moench, C. Andrew Rohrmann and Connie Sabo), whose work explores the structure or theme of Mandala, the Hindu and Buddhist representation of the Universe. Mandalas, commonly seen as circular forms or a square within a circle, are a microcosm of existence, a meditative tool, and a Jungian symbol representing the effort to reunify the self. Above is my Rust Monotype Gnosis, one of several related rust images I will be exhibiting. ArtXchange is located at 512 1st Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104. Hours are 11:30-5:30 Tuesday-Saturday.

It has been a pleasure to exhibit in Playing and Living Joyfully , May-June, an exhibit curated by Janice Randall at Seattle's Plymouth Church. My two Monotypes in the exhibit, "Dog Walkin Waltz" and "Divining Center" shared the wall behind the baptismal font of this beautiful church with work by artists Kristen Reitz Green, Carol Swchennesen, Penny Grist, Donna Botten and Pam Ingalls. It was a wonderful exhibit in an inspiring space.

Workshops are celebrations of discovery for those who take them and for those who teach them! Several weekends a year my good friend Ilse Reimnitz and I teach monotype and watercolor workshops. I always have fun meeting new artists  and renewing ties with the friends who have returned to take another workshop.  And for me the bonus is to be with and make art with Ilse. Certainly watercolor demands patience and concentration  but the method we like to teach also embraces the serendipitous.  By reacting to what happens in an initial pour of transparent nonstaining pigments compositions are imagined, established and developed in each newly painted (staining) layer. In the photo above Ilse demonstrates the process.  Making art is a strange amalgam of actively seeing, purposeful motion and a portion of don't forget to breath, deeply.  People who make art are filters and conduits at the same time.   I thank the participants of our workshop and Ilse for reminding me.