MARTHA BROUWER / BRIAN FISHER at Roby King Galleries

May 3 to June 1,  2013, Roby King Galleries of Bainbridge Island will exhibit the Paintings of Martha Brouwer and Rust Monoprints by Brian Fisher.

Gull Descending, 18x11 in.

I am honored to exhibit with Martha Brouwer and thank Andrea and Wes, the owners of Roby King Galleries, for the opportunity to exhibit my new rust work.

Martha describes her work:  "My design skills and my interest in patterns and textures are reflected in my approach. I enjoy layering different media to accomplish depth of tone and meaning."  When thinking of her subject she says: "My paintings celebrate the interconnected of all life -  the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, humans. These connections imply a responsibility for caring for each other and sharing the planet.”  www.marthabrouwer.com

Sowing the Dragon's Teeth, 14x14 ln.

I also embrace the importance of caring connection to the world around us and revere the human past that defines us.  Much of my imagery is inspired by those layered stories that have defined our culture.

When asked about my interest in myth I often reply that it was Western Myth that gave my bedtime its ritual and its closure.  My mother and my father in particular, liked history.  H.G. Well's "Outline of History" and Homer's "Iliad and the Odyssey" were my bedtime stories.   So, myth is personal and the world beyond my bedroom door first made sense, was made familiar, through myth.

The world we live in is by any definition multicultural, but the United States embodies, embraces and is founded upon western ideals and it's stories.  It is not just our idea of Government and Democracy I refer to, but also our culture's stories, entertainment and products that are reverberations of Greek and Roman myth.

From the heavenly skies above, (Venus, Neptune, Mars, Uranus, the Pleiades, etc...), Greek and Roman myth reigns.  The vehicles we drive, (Comet, Mercury, and Saturn etc...), the products we wear and use, (Ajax, Trojan, Nike, etc...), and the company names that we all recognize, ( Amazon, Oracle, Delphi, Odyssey, Orion, etc...), all, each, conjure those old, old "stories we tell ourselves."