Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Asterion , Monoprint, 27.5 x 20.25 in. The  rust prints I have been working on inspire me to make simpler compositions when printing with the etching press. I am experimenting again with printing dry pigments into ink made heavy with Setswell Compound and Burnt Plate Oil.  I enjoy the rich play of complimentary colors and the textural results when I throw chunky pigments into the ink. At left is my Monoprint, newly completed, for submission to the Seattle Erotic Art Festival, June 16-24, 2012. It is named Asterion and is inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’s wonderful short story, La Casa de Asterión and is of course about the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

George Wright, sculpture and director of The Heron's Nest Gallery on Vashon Island invited me to create work for a self portrait exhibition at the gallery this month.  Above is my contribution, "Back to Back, They Faced Each Other" an 8 x10 x 2 inch Monotype print, portrait, mounted to a wood panel box. The show is quite fun and a bit of a challenge to identify fellow artists and friends. Here is a link to The Heron’s Nest .  Stop by when you have a chance.

Siren's Song, Monotype, 12 5/8 x 10 1/2 in. Art at Studio Bookcase  Walls of art bookend my studio bookcase during the 2010 Vashon Island Holiday Open Studio Tour .  Three more images of my monotype print work featured there are posted here for closer inspection. Athena Nike, Monotype, 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. Island Orchard, Monotype, 20 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.

Art at Staircase Here is another shot of my artwork as displayed for the 2010 Vashon Island Holiday Open Studio Tour with details of a print and painting featured at the staircase. Theseus and the Minotaur, Monotype, 14 1/4 x 22 3/4 in. Taming Bucephalus, Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in.

I am still framing work for the 2010 Vashon Island Holiday Art Studio Tour .  Posted above is a small monotype that will be part of my show.  It is inspired by these few lines from Tennyson’s poem Ulysses . Come, my friends, ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. My Mixed Media Monotype, " To Sail Beyond Sunset ," is 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.

Dorus,  Monotype,  5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. I have been framing work for the 2010 Vashon Island Holiday Art Studio Tour and decided to share another image that reflects the reoccurring theme of “Origins” in my recent work. Dorus, son of Hellen, (father of the primary tribes of Greece) is the mythical King and founder of the Dorians in the region of Mt. Parnassus, north of the Gulf of Corinth.  Every student of architecture who read Sir Banister Fletcher’s History of Architecture will recall his descriptions of  “temenos” or “sacred enclosure” and remember the comparative architectural evolution of Greek orders.  The Doric Order and Column, named for Dorus was the the simplest and first of the orders, the archetype, the original.   In my Monotype I have depicted Dorus’s crown or capital as a fluted section of column, another detail of the Doric order.

I have completed another Monotype to be exhibited when my studio (23520 147 Ave SW, Vashon Island, WA) is open for the Vashon Island Holiday Studio Tour (the first two weekends in December).  This work, titled, Centauromachy, (Battle of the Centaurs), is my riff on a classical Greek theme, and favorite subject of European Renaissance artists. The Lapiths, in Greek mythology, were a pre-Hellenic race who lived with Centaurs in Thessaly in the river valley of the Peneus.  Mythic genealogies make Lapiths and Centaurs a kindred race, the Lapith King Pirithous being the son, and the Centaurs, perhaps, sons or grandsons of Ixion.  (The myths of Ixion are confused and very interesting.  I am working on future imagery inspired by his story). During the celebratory wedding feast of Pirithous and his bride Hippodamia the Centaurs, inflamed by wine, attempt to abduct the bride.  In the battle that ensues the Lapiths with the help of legendary heroes like Theseus, defeat and subsequen

George Wright, sculpture and director of the Heron's Nest Gallery on Vashon, invited seven artists to create work for an August show in the gallery. She chose Postcards from the Edge as theme and everyone has approached the subject quite differently. I frequently print at an almost postcard scale, particularly when I am searching for accidental compositions to develop as paintings or larger print imagery. The cards are 6 3/4 x 5 inches. Above are a few of the twenty Monotype and Collograph print images I made for the exhibit.