Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Nineveh , Monotype collage with 24k gold, 19 1/2" x 28 1/2" on Somerset Velvet Paper   Danny Kopsak and I will show in "Cut and Paste" at Vashon Center for the Arts Gallery, Aug 11-27, 2023. Opening Aug 11, 5-8pm. The title of our show "Cut and Paste" describes a critical part of the process we each undertake to create compositions cut from paper. My monotype print collage, Nineveh, is one of eight pattern compositions inspired by ancient cities of the Middle East, first printed, then cut and collaged, in a series I call- Magic Carpet Ride! Nineveh the ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, was located on the outskirts of Mosul in modern-day northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and was the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Check it all out this month at Vashon Center for the Arts during the Summer Arts Festival!

"Damascus" is a monotype print collage from my Magic Carpet Ride series for “Cut and Paste” showing with paper cut artist Danny Kopsak’s new work at Vashon Center Gallery. Opening Aug 11, 5-8, exhibiting through Aug 27, in VCA's Summer Arts Festival 2023. “Whoever would sit upon this carpet and will it to be taken up and set down upon another site, shall, in the twinkling of an eye, be borne thither, whether that place be near at hand, or distant many a day's journey and difficult to reach.” It is said that Solomon’s magic carpet was made with a warp of green silk and weft of golden thread. It was sixty miles long and sixty miles wide. When he sat upon the carpet he was caught up by the wind and flew so quickly that he could breakfast in Damascus and dine in Media.

  Helios, Oil on Canvas over panel, 16 x 16 in. I'm framing "Helios" today, the last of my work to be framed in preparation for the 2023 Spring VIVA Art Studio Tour, May 6-7 & 13-14, Sats & Suns, 10am-5pm.  I am lucky #13 on the tour map this year! I was delighted to have one of my sunflower paintings selected for this years brochure and poster.  Check it out here, VIVA Art Tour , along with all the other wonderful studios and galleries on the Vashon Island Visual Artists (VIVA) studio tour!

  My monotype print,“The Pearl Divers", is currently on exhibit at JGO Gallery, on Bainbridge Island. My mother in-law was an opera fan. Not long after she moved to the Northwest, Seattle Opera performed The Pearl Fishers, ( Les Pecheurs de Perles),  by Bizet and she declared "You will love it" and "We must attended this performance!"  At the time I was living through hellish back pain.  Perhaps the pain is what made it memorable (I stood in the back of McCall Hall for most of the performance),  but its' beautiful friendship aria, sung by the central characters Zurga and Nadir, have been with me ever since.  Thank you Doris for insisting on the experience!

  "The Queen in Winter" Monotype print with 24k gold over panel, 10" x 10".  Check her out on the 2023 VIVA Art Studio Tour, the first two weekends in May. Link  @vivartists.com Each winter, the beehive clusters, the queen at warmest, center, with the core worker bees shaking, shivering around her to maintaining a survivable heat. The fate of the hive depends on how sufficiently the hive population has prepared for winter.

My Monotype Print, “Queen Bee”, 24k gold, 10" x 10 ", is inspired by the real and historical importance of bees in myth and as pollinators. Check her out, studio  #13 , on the VIVA 2023 Spring Art Studio Tour, May 6-7 & 13-14. The self guided tour hosts 37 art studios and galleries! Visit all the studios the first two weekends in May. Bees as pollinators and the honey they produce are central to mankind's wellbeing, our creation myths, cosmologies and the sacred places of many ancient cultures.  Greek, African, Australian, South American and Hindu-Indian creation stories recognize and highlight the bee as a revered animal and sacred symbol.  Bees evolved soon after the first flowers appeared in the Cretaceous Period, an estimated 130 million years ago!  

Twin Djinn, 10 x 10 in. monotype over wood panel, (currently at Swiftwater Gallery ) is inspired by the Arabic myths of the Qareen, meaning “constant companion” or spiritual double, who is either part of you or a complementary being in another dimension. Sometimes defined as Djinn, the Qareen have parallels in Egyptian mythology, as ka, a tangible "spirit double" and in contemporary stories of the doppelgänger.