Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

"Hades Takes A Wife"  Rust print on vintage linen over panel, 36 x 28 in. "Hades Takes A Wife" depicts the abduction of Persephone by Hades; the first act in the Greek foundation myth explaining the cycles of nature and symbolizing the cycle of life and rebirth. Hades ruled the Underworld alone and desired a Queen to rule with him.  He fell in love with Persephone but knew Persephone’s mother Demeter, goddess of harvest and fertility, would never consent to his proposal.  So, Hades appealed to a higher power, his brother Zeus (Persephone’s Father) who agreed to the union but foresaw Demeter’s objections. Together they decided Hades would steal Persephone from her mother. One day while Persephone picked meadow flowers a cavern opened at her feet and Hades took her down, down to his Underworld Kingdom.  Demeter frantically searched the world for her lost daughter but of course she was no longer of the world.  Eventually she discovered what had really happened but

"The Temple of Forgetting" Rust Print on linen over panel, 41 x 33 in. Lethe’s Temple, "The Temple of Forgetting", has its foundations in a river.  In early Greek myth, Lethe was one of five rivers that flowed through the subterranean Kingdom of Hades.  Souls who passed into Hades had need to forget the suffering they had endured, or perhaps, the torment they had inflicted.  So, if a soul were ever to achieve peace, the dead would drink from its water in order to forget their earthly life and the river Lethe would wash away the memory of physical reality. Myths evolve and Lethe the river was eventually personified as Goddess.  Lethe the Goddess became synonymous with forgetting.  Lethe is the root word of lethargy meaning weariness, lassitude, and fatigue. Please view “The Temple of Lethe”, a Rust Print Assemblage, at my studio, stop #5, on the  2017 Vashon Island Holiday Studio Tour , December 2-3 & 9-10 (Saturdays and Sundays) 10am to 4pm.

Artist Denise Kester and I shared a wonderful opening at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island Saturday evening.  We are each inspired by myth and pursue our own personal take on that seen and imagined world in monotype and in paint.  Thank you Andrea and Wes, gallery curators and owners, for thinking to pair the two of us and for the opportunity to show with Roby King again!   Check us out!  Our work will exhibit from November 3-25-2017.  You may preview my contribution to our show here: Brian Fisher Prints and Paintings

"Guardian" oil on canvas, 28 x 24 in. Guardian is one of two paintings among many prints in my exhibit at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island, November 3-27.  I was inspired to reinterpret my monotype print "Guardian" in paint when I read these words from one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins. "It is hard to speak of these things how the voices of light enter the body and begin to recite their stories how the earth holds us painfully against its breast made of humus and brambles how we who will soon be gone regard the entities that continue to return greener than ever, spring water flowing through a meadow and the shadows of clouds passing over the hills and the ground where we stand in the tremble of thought taking the vast outside into ourselves." from the poem “Directions” by Billy Collins "The entities that continue to return," are symbolized in the Nyads, Kodama, and Green Men.

“Midsummer’s Day Dream”, Monotype Print with gold leaf I live in a forest, a wood, a copse, or something like that.  Maybe it’s a wield?  It’s not quite "Forest Primeval."  The Cedar and Douglas Fir that surround my home/studio are only a century plus old but they are magnificent.  I admire their green, their grey, their loft and all year long I listen to their voices.   They are vocal!  They are often even musical, though I fear those voices in Fall and Winter when the seasons bend and break them.  In Spring when the wind is constant, so are their soothing voices.  In verdant Summer, they are heavy, still, can sigh and sometimes they snore.  I imagine they dream. My Monotype, “Midsummer’s Day Dream”, will show at Roby King Galleries, November 3-27, 2017, when Denise Kester and I exhibit our personal interpretations of myth in print and paint.

Brian Fisher, "Kodama"  Monotype print with gold leaf, 12 x 12 in. Indigenous cultures around the world revered special trees or rocks or unique aspects of their homelands.  Japanese myth speaks of Kodama, deities who dwell within or among the trees and groves they protect.  One of the oldest references to the Kodama is the book Wamuryorui Jyusho or Japanese Names for Things; written 931 – 938 CE.  In this dictionary Kodama are defined as spirits of the trees . Early Japanese lore described the Kodama as either invisible or indistinguishable from trees but over time Kodama took on human aspect.  There are stories of Kodama falling in love with humans and assuming human shape to be with their beloved much like the Greek myths of Dryads, humans and gods. My monotype "Kodama" was made for exhibition at Roby King Galleries November 3-27, 2017 where Denise Kester and I will display our individual interpretations of myth in print and paint.

Artist Valerie Willson shared her approach to collograph in a couple wonderful workshops at Vashon's Quartermaster Press.  We attached thin materials like paper and cloth to plexiglass plates with gloss acrylic medium and created texture with modeling paste.  The result was a very sturdy collograph plate. Inspired by what I learned, I've been exploring the process in a series of prints about myth in nature.  Here is a drawing and collograph plate of "Atticus," from my Green Man series. Collagraph, collograph, no matter how you spell it, refers to a collage of materials glued to a substrate to create a printable plate.  Ink may be applied to the high surfaces of the plate with a brayer, like a relief print, or ink may be applied to the entire plate and then removed by wiping from the upper surfaces leaving ink between and around collage elements, resulting in an intaglio print.  I now employ both methods when making my own collographs.  Below is a detail that

Prints by Lynn McClain and Janice Campbell Ilse Reimnitz and I teach a monotype workshop one or two times a year.  It is always fun to share this print process with others and spend creative time with Ilse.  Above and below are a few examples from our April 2017 workshop.   Each was made using oil base etching inks over a smooth plexiglass plate and printed in layers with a Takach etching press. Prints by John Riley and Lou McBride

Daniel Mendelsohn wrote, “The writers we absorb when we’re young bind us to them, sometimes lightly, sometimes with iron. In time, the bonds fall away, but if you look very closely you can sometimes make out the pale white groove of a faded scar, or the telltale chalky red of old rust.”  He was describing how Mary Renault’s books and her correspondence with him had influenced his life.  He could also have been describing the physical scars of a survivor of lightening strike. I first read “Fire from Heaven,” and the “The Persian Boy” when I was 15 and Renault cast a literally spell over how I viewed my adolescent world.   In many ways the characters and places she described continue to influence how I filter circumstance and the art I create. The biblical interpretation of  “Fire from Heaven” is about sacrifice, (burnt offerings) and retribution.  When I created my rust Monotype “Fire from Heaven” shortly after Trump won enough Electoral votes to qualify him for Presidency I admit t

This is "Omphalos", a Rust Monoprint with Gold Leaf, mounted to a coped dimensional panel.  It's dimensions are approximately 36 x 36 x 1 3/4 inches.  I made it by rusting a water-jet cut Cort-en steel plate onto/into an antique linen tablecloth. Omphalos means navel, as in belly button, (umbilicus in Latin) and it also means "The Center."  The Omphalos Stone at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi Greece marked the center of the old Greek world. Each culture has its recognized center.  Sometimes more than one. For instance, the USA's political Omphalos would be the White House in Washington DC and cultural center might perhaps be Rockefeller Center in New York City (or not).  In every culture it depends on who's telling the story! If you would like to see "Omphalos," the current center of my world, please visit the annual Seattle Print Arts Members Exhibition, Pressing On, with an opening reception today, Thursday, November 17th,  5-8 pm, a

The Gemini, Rust Mono Print, Vintage Linen mounted to Panel, 11x11 in. Gemini is one of the brighter constellations of the Zodiac. I n the Northern Hemisphere, it lights up the early evening sky from January until May. The constellation is said to represent the twins of Greek myth Castor and Polydeuces. These brothers are also known as the Dioskouroi or Dioscuri, meaning “sons of Zeus.”  In Latin they are called the Gemini. Myths differ but in the best known story of their parentage and birth, their mother Leda, a Queen of Sparta, was seduced by a swan that turned out to be Zeus.  Amorous Leda soon thereafter also conceived by her husband Tyndareus and gave birth to an egg or eggs that contained the male twins Castor and Polydeuces and female twins Helen and Clytemnestra.  These siblings play significant roles in the many myths that describe the Trojan War, Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece and even the Theseus myth. Castor and Polydeuces are some

"Europa"  Brian Fisher, Monotype Print, 25 x 25 in. I am delighted to have my Monotype Prints, “Europa” and “The Caledonian Boar,” exhibited in “The Printmaker’s Hand III”! Corvidae Press Guild of Port Townsend WA in association with Northwind Arts Center, also of Port Townsend WA, are hosting “The Printmaker’s Hand III”, an exhibition of fine art prints, September 4th - 27th, 2015.  The opening reception is September 5 in conjunction with Port Townsend’s Art Walk.  On September 6, Juror, Sam Davidson owner/director of Seattle’s premier print gallery,  Davidson Galleries, will talk about the art of print and the juried work chosen for exhibition in “The Printmaker’s Hand III”. Northwind Arts Center is located at 701 Water Street, in the historic Waterman & Katz Building, Port Townsend WA.  Find more details about the show, location and Sam Davidson’s talk here “The Printmaker’s hand III.”   And link here to more information he

Good friend and art compatriot, Ilse Reimnitz and I share the billboard in a couple upcoming shows.(Corvadie Press’s “Printmakers Hand III” and “B2 Gallery Fall Exhibit” in September-November). In mid August we also taught a Monotype workshop at Ilse’s gorgeous print/paint studio.   We’re equally passionate about print process and in this class we felt particularly well matched with six print curious artists that were so obviously born to print !  Here are just a few images from a wonderful weekend!

Day of the Dead is theme and exhibition at Vashon Intuitive Arts Gallery through the month of October. Nine island artists: Annie Brulé, Sooze Bloom DeLeon Grossman, Adrienne Edmonson, Brian Fisher, Kara LC Jones, Lynndee LeBeau, Carol Schwennesen, Jane Valencia, and Sherene Zolno share imagery inspired by El Día de Muertos.
 
 Opening night, Vashon's First Friday, October 3rd, from 6 to 9PM, will include a live harp performance by Jane Valenci.  Intuitive Arts Gallery also welcomes  images and offerings that celebrate memory and connection from the community.
 "Fetch" honors the  memory of my dog "Tashi" and his obsession/mission in life to retrieve!


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.

Last weekend was the kick off for the Vashon Island Artist Studio tour and although my studio is not in the tour line-up this year I have work in several venues on Vashon and garden sculpture in the Small Works show at Roby King Galleries on Bainbridge Island.  All these openings were on the same night Friday December 6.  The work will show through the month. In the photo above I stand before some of my Monotype and sculptural work at The Heron's Nest, during the Vashon First Friday Artwalk. Sculpture and watercolor artist, Darsey Beck and I were the featured artists this month at the Heron's Nest on Vashon. Below is a shot taken at the opening of the Vashon Allied Arts Gallery's "Masters in Miniture" show.   My Monotype work (the three descending at center) along with print collage work by fellow artists and friends Janice Mallman (below) and Edith Sehulster (at right) were part of this 40+ artist invitational show.

Last night the Vashon Island Community Meal Program, sponsored by Vashon Social Services Network held the Vashon 'Empty Bowls' fundraiser.  Vashon Island artist Liz Lewis coordinated the making and painting of each handcrafted bowl for the event. In exchange for a cash donation guests kept a bowl as a reminder of all the bowls empty of food around the world.  Above and below is one of the many bowls Liz Lewis made and that I had so much fun painting.  As a creative experience I felt inspired by the project and the challenge of painting on a three dimensional surface!

I have continued to explore rust as a medium this summer and early fall.  My "Man at Center" Rust Monotype, 30" x 30" in., mounted to wood panel, was made with an open Corten steel plate and acetate stencil.  Below is am image of the plate after the print was pulled.