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Showing posts with the label Brian Fisher Art

Perseus

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"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

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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 wanders

Daphne

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My new cut steel sculpture "Daphne" will exhibit at Roby King Gallery, Bainbridge Island WA, Feb 7- March 1, 2020 in "A Trio of Print-makers" with Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve McFarlane.  The opening Reception is Feb 7, 6-8 pm.  Check it Out!   Ovid's description of Daphne's pursuit by Apollo, prayer to her father the river god Peneus and subsequent change into the Laurel or Daphne tree is context for my sculpture.  My inspiration though is Kathleen Raine's contemporary poem "Daphne After" and her Me-Too depiction of coping with violation and the victims emotional metamorphosis. 
 Daphne After by Kathleen Raine   In the absence of a heart grown stemwise, silent, slow Daphne drinks unremembering and unknown, in the manner of a laurel thinks in branches, sometimes blossoms.  Real forgetting is her secret, long detachment, no slit sense to heal. Only sentiment and song remember how she suffered, ran in terror, turning tree, an

Theseus

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  "Theseus", 25 x 37 in. is my monotype print with 23k gold leaf exhibiting at Roby King Gallery, 176 Winslow Way E., Bainbridge Island, WA in "A Trio of Print-makers" with Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve MacFarlane. The opening reception is February 7, 6-8. Gallery Hours: 11am-6pm, Tues.-Sat. through February.

 If ever there was one "Once upon a time..." story, the Athenian foundation myth of Theseus covers all the the Jungian archetypal conquering hero motifs. He is tested, he is good, he slays monsters, returns with wisdom and is a unifying King. It's Greek myth so of course doesn't end all so well for Theseus but it's probably my favorite hero story!

"In and Out" at the Vashon Heritage Museum

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"Anthem", (Small Town Boy) & "The Band Played On", ( Never Can Say Goodby), by Brian Fisher, Monotype Print with wood bas-relief.  "Anthem" in gold and "The Band Played On" in green, above, are two of five collagraph monotype and wood bas-relief window installations I printed and carved for the Vashon Heritage Museum's "In and Out, Being LGBTQ+ on Vashon Island".  Designed by Jessica DeWire and curated by Ellen Kritzman and Stephen Silha , the exhibit is showing now through March 2020. My window installations are inspired by the coming out “Anthems”, the music my Gay friends have shared and that I subsequently have listened to while planning, printing and assembling each element of this music inspired installation. The Bronskie Beat song "Small Town Boy" is a personal favorite and is my inspiration for "Anthem".

Icarus

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"Icarus", Brian Fisher, Steel Sculpture My sculpture Icarus will exhibit at   Roby King Gallery Feb 7- March 1 Opening Reception Feb 7, 6-8 pm.   Icarus by Rebecca G. Bagget The story is so simple really. Imagine yourself gifted with wings, every child's sleeping and waking dream, imagine that you could defy that force dragging us all to heel, imagine every sweet safe green harbor below, laid out for your choosing like candies in their box. Then imagine that one gold coin, that fierce and pulsing point around which worlds dance, imagine the gentleness below and that wildness above, imagine that something in you echoed to the leaping of its flames, imagine how its one question beat in your veins, how you saw with perfect clarity that moment in which each of us chooses, forever. Imagine that voice far below crying: Come back      Come back                                       

In and Out, Vashon Heritage Mueseum

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I love seeing my Vashon friends in this YouTube clip created by filmmaker Michael Monteleone celebrating  the Vashon Island Heritage Museum's exhibit "In and Out,  Being LGBTQ on Vashon Island".  The exhibit opened in June 2019 and it will continue until March of 2020.  If you've already seen this inspirational, informational, exhibit please share it with your friends.  If you have not already experienced "In and Out", designed by Jessica DeWire and curated by Ellen Kritzman and Stephen Silha...  you must check it out!   My contribution to the celebration are five print and bas relief window installations inspired by the "coming out music" my friends and family shared with me.  At left is a snap from the "In and Out" opening.  It was wall to wall fun and a night to remember!

Sacred Circle EDEN & VIVA & VOV

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The 2nd weekend of the VIVA Art Studio Tour is December 14 & 15, 10-4.  Check out the 45, yes, 45 !!! studios and galleries on the 2019 Vashon Island Art Studio Holiday Tour!  My original digital print Eden (1/12), above, will be on exhibit in Brian Fisher Studio. #2 on tour.   I invite you to stop by and check out where I think and make and make ... more!  Here's a link to Jeff Hoyt's VOV, Voice of Vashon , interview with artist Pam Ingalls and with me.  It's all about why this VIVA tour and Vashon Island are so special!

VIVA Garden Totems, Vashon Strawberry Festival 2019

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VIVA, Vashon Island's Visual Artists organization, will be selling Garden Totems during  Vashon's Strawberry Festival this Saturday, Sunday July 20-2i1, 2019! Each one is unique and hand-crafted by Vashon Island artists. Proceeds go towards funding organizational projects, functions and VIVA Scholarships.  The Totems will sell for $175. each. Below is my contribution, Byzantium in Red! Come looks us over and check out our raffle too, booth A-19!  

The Temple of the Winds

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The Temple of the Winds, monotype print 1/1, Brian Fisher Not so very long ago humans anthropomorphized and deified elements of nature.  Would that we still respected and recognized our symbiotic relationship to nature instead of attempting to monetize our very existence.  The “answer my friend” to climate change depends on you and me.  Elect representatives to government that will affect responsible climate policy. Please. My monotype print “Temple of the Winds” has its inspiration in the myths of the Anemia, the four winds and their children associated with Earth's cycle of seasons and once worshiped as: Boreas the North-Wind, Zephyrus the West-Wind, Notus the South-Wind, and Eurus the East-wind. You can check out my monotype print, “The Temple of the Winds”, Studio #21, during the VIVA, Holiday Studio Tour.  This Vashon art studio tour is self guided with 38 studios & galleries, featuring 115 local artists.  December 1-2 & 8-9, 10

The Bull of Heaven

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The Bull of Heaven,  monotype print, Brian Fisher Taurus is perhaps the most prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere’s winter sky. One of the oldest described constellations, dating at least from the early Bronze Age when it marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox, Taurus is symbol for the bull in the oldest mythologies of Sumer/Babylon, Egypt, India, Minoan Crete and Greece. Wild bulls of Europe and Asia were huge, possibly as large as 6 feet at the shoulder, Whether referenced in visual art or described in writing the bull was venerated as the embodiment of supernatural strength and virility. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero Gilgamesh angered Innana, (Sumerian Goddess of love, sex war, and… justice) with his refusal to be her mate.  So spurned, she called down “The Bull of Heaven” to destroy Gilgamesh, Uruk his city, drink up all the water, devour the pasture and strip the land bare. The hero Gilgamesh and his best bro, the wild

Enkidu

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Enkidu, mixed media monotype print on vintage linen over panel, Brian Fisher “Dat ain't a mythic memory of pre-civilized humanity, dat's a song!” Jimmy Durante sings Inkydo! When Enkidu was a living myth, he and his best bro Gilgamesh were described and inscribed as cuneiform writing in clay.  Their story, The Epic of Gilgamesh, first written c. 2100 BCE recounts a king’s struggle with his fear of death, and his foolish quest for immortality. Enkidu was created by the gods as match, equal, companion and (thank the gods) solution to the extreme passions Gilgamesh exhibited as ruler of the Sumerian city-state, Uruk. Enkidu, a child of nature, roamed the plains of Mesopotamia (land between the rivers, modern Iraq).  His friends were beasts and he protected them by thwarting hunters and destroying their traps.  Gilgamesh eventually sends a priestess of Innana (goddes of love, sexual desire, fertility, war and justice), to tame him, resultin

Gilgamesh

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"Gilgamesh," mixed media rust print on vintage linen, Brian Fisher The Epic of Gilgamesh, regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature,  is an ancient Sumerian poem describing the life and ambitions of Gilgamesh the demigod, hero and king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk. The story first describes Gilgamesh as larger than life, beautiful to behold, with an expansive imagination and passions.  He’s the epitome of the civilized man.  He’s a builder, a dreamer but as it turns out, he’s also a despot. His abused and oppressed subjects pray to the gods for deliverance.  The gods respond by creating an opposite, a match, for Gilgamesh.  His name is Enkidu. He’s a natural, a wild man who's friends are the beasts of the wild.  They brawl when they meet but learn quickly to respect each other. It’s a twenty-seventh century B.C.E. bromance. With Enkidu’s tempering influence the great city of Uruk is finally ruled by a just and wise King.  Gilgamesh however is

Night Sky

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  "Night Sky," Brian Fisher, monotype print, 24k gold I've been thinking about SKY and making art about it for several years.  In the VIVA Holiday Art Studio Tour, December 1-2 & 8-9, I will exhibit at least 10 images that are related to sky myths, sky gods and the cosmos.  This is "Night Sky".  “I know that I am mortal by nature, and ephemeral; but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies I no longer touch the earth with my feet: I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia” ― Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy wrote Almagest or Syntaxis , his influential treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and of planetary paths, in about 150 AD. He postulated an incorrect though influential cosmology that would become the basis of our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it for the next 1,200 years.  However wrong his geocentric treatise, it included and kept alive ancient Greek trigonometr

Beltane

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Beltane, by Brian Fisher, monotype print with 24k gold, 14 x 14 in. Today, acknowledging the change of Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time, I thought I’d post work about seasonal change. My print Beltane, (the return of the sun) was originally created and exhibited at the Tacoma Art Museum in response to artist Doris Lee’s “Maypole" in the TAM print collection. Beltane will again be exhibited for sale during the VIVA Art Studio tour, Dec. 1-2 & 8-9, 10-4 pm at Fisher Studio, stop no. 21, at 23520 147th Ave. SW. Beltane or May Day celebrates the beginning of summer and is halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice.  It’s one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals including Lughnasadh (beginning of harvest in early August), Samhain (celebrating the end of harvest and the beginning of winter at the end of October) and Imbolc (meaning in the belly or womb, and the beginning of spring in early February). These seasonal rituals w

Brian Fisher Studio

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Vashon Island's Art Studio Tour 2016, the first two weekends in December, is a great opportunity to see, visit and purchase directly from the artists!