Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Easter weekend I made these bench hooks for safely carving linoleum blocks like this one of "Leo and Lang", from my Love Puppet series.  the smaller bench hook is great for 4 x 6 in. blocks and with the larger one i can cut 8x10 in., 10x12 in. and in between!

Opening last night- my solo exhibit at Bellarmine's Gathering Space Art Gallery , Tacoma Wa, March 5-30, 2020.  
Thank you artist and teacher Ben Meeker for the opportunity to show and for the incredible Mediterranean spread! I wish I had a photo of that! The circle is a reoccurring element in much of my imagery and is representative of many things to me. These three Rust Monotypes reflect cyclic stages of the hero's quest for balance in his/her exploration of our creative, spiritual and cultural impulses. Each was made by using an open steel plate and acetate stencils; a variation on the water-jet cut steel plates I sometimes print from. Thanks to everyone who could come and all the wonderful conversation!

My cut steel sculpture "Aphrodite" exhibits Feb 7- March 1, 2020 at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island in "A Trio of Print-makers".  Opening reception is Tonight, Feb. 7, 6-8 pm.  Aphrodite is the ancient Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation.  
 I love the description of her in this version of “Give me that old time religion” made popular by folk musician Pete Seeger.
 Shall I worship Zarathustra 
just the way we use ta? 
 Be a Zarathustra Booster
 What a thing to be! Or maybe Aphrodite
 She’s beautiful but flighty
 and doesn’t wear a nighty, now there’s a sight to see. 
Or perhaps I’ll choose Apollo 
 a decent god to follow
 I’d grovel and I’d wallow
 Brought low on bended knee. 
Elohim or Yahweh?
 Allah or the highway? 
 I think I’ll just go my way.
 That’s good enough for me. 
Give me that old time religion 
Give me that old time religion
.... It's good enough for me!

My monotype print “Amphora Asterion”, exhibits in "A Trio of Printmakers", ( Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve MacFarlane).  Feb 7- March 1, 2020 at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island. The opening reception is  Feb. 7, 6-8 pm. Amphora Asterion is a   Monotype Print,  29 1/4 x 21 1/2  in. depicting Asterion, the Minotaur of Cretan Myth. And the Queen gave birth to a child who was called Asterion. —Apollodorus   A mingled form where two strange shapes combined, And different natures, bull and man, were joined. —Euripides  

My cut steel sculpture "Asterion, The Starry One" exhibits Feb 7- March 1, 2020 at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island in "A Trio of Print-makers".  Opening reception is  Feb. 7 6-8 pm.   Crete’s mythic civilization began when Zeus (as bull) abducted Europa from a Phoenician beach and swam into the setting sun until arriving on the Aegean island of Crete.  To their union three children were born, Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon.  Europa became queen of Crete upon marrying Crete's reigning King Asterion and he stepfather to her children.  Upon his death the children warred as successors and when Minos defeated his brothers to become King he prayed that Poseidon, God of the Seas, send him a bull to sacrifice in recognition that his Kingship was divinely sanctioned.  Poseidon’s gift, a beautiful pure white bull, The Cretan Bull, The Bull From The Sea, appeared as petitioned but Minos instead elected to substitute another bull and kept t...

"Perseus" will exhibit at Roby King Gallery , Bainbridge Island WA, Feb 7- March 1, 2020 in "A Trio of Print-makers" with work by Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve McFarlane.  The opening Reception is Feb 7, 6-8 pm. Check it Out! Perseus is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. His mother Danae was the daughter of Acrisius, the King of Argos. King Acrisius locked Danae in a room without windows or doors, open only to the heavens, to prevent her ever having suitors or a child after the Oracle at Delphi foretold his own death by Danae's son.  Zeus however saw and fell in love with Danae and visited her from above as a shower of gold and so Perseus was conceived and born. King Acrisius, now the grandfather of a demi-god, attempted one more time to thwart the prophecy.  He locked Danae and the infant Perseus in a wooden chest and cast them into the Aegean Sea.  Eventually, they washed up and were found by Diktys, a fis...

Medusa, my monotype print, will exhibit at Roby King Gallery , Bainbridge Island WA, Feb 7- March 1, 2020 in "A Trio of Print-makers" with work by Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve McFarlane. So delighted to be part of this talented lineup!  The opening Reception is Feb 7, 6-8 pm. Check it Out! The Myths of Medusa and Perseus have been told and retold for time out of mind and the image of Medusa as Gorgon can be found in art and architecture for thousands of years.  Even today she appears on the flag of Sicily and ever since Gianni Versace adopted Medusa as his logo in 1978 her iconic image has become even more pervasive. 

The eighth century BC poet Hesiod, of Boeotia, composed a poem, the Theogony, about the creation of the world and the Greek gods.  In it he describes the Gorgons, the mortal Medusa, whose name comes from the old verb médô that means “I rule,” and her two immortal sisters, Sthenno or “strength” and Euryale “the one that leaps or wand...