Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

The Spring Vashon Island Art Studio Tour begins this weekend!  On May 1-2 and 8-9,  from 10 AM till 5 PM, twenty nine participating Vashon studios will throw open their studio doors and welcome art patrons who may purchase art and learn from Vashon artists how they create the work they are exhibiting. When you visit Vashon artists in their studios you discover art of amazing variety and extraordinary quality.  Here is a link to find out about the wealth of art you will experience on Vashon Island during the Spring tour. http://vashonislandartstudiotour.com/S2010/ This year I will start my art exploration with a new studio on the tour.  The Reimnitz Studio, # 18 on the map, will be showing oil paintings by Hartmut Reimnitz, watercolor paintings and Monotypes by Ilse Reimnitz and sculpture by Gunter Reimnitz. The Vashon Island Art Studio Tour is free, (just follow the numbers designated on the Studio Tour map) but because a visit to Vashon  also entails adventure over water

For a few formative years, in childhood, a good friend and I were often described by his grandmother as “Joined at the Hip”.  We shared our hours, days and lives.   It was an apt description for two preadolescent boys, paired by circumstance who discovered, tested, teased and taught, each other, about being boys and life growing up in a small Kansas town.   The phrase, Joined at the Hip, generally refers to the condition of conjoined twins (commonly called Siamese twins), although in reality conjoined twins are rarely joined at the hip. My sculpture, Joined at the Hip, is an assemblage of antique Quebecer gut seat chairs, Wood, and Acrylic paint on Linen.  37 1/2 x 44 x 24 in. Photos by Charles Backus.

Today I am posting a photo of my assemblage Match from an ongoing series about twins.  I am unsure about the basis for my personal interest in twins.   There exists however, a universal fascination with the mystery of sameness and opposites, of duality and the stories that twins inspire. Across cultures and through history, myths of twins as: partners (the Roman Romulus and Remus), rivals (the Egyptian Osiris and Set), opposites (the Greek Apollo and Artemis), and two haves of a whole (the Greek Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux) are evidence of our interest and attempt to explain this intriguing natural phenomenon. Match is a play on the various definitions of the word match and the associated condition of twins.  In my assemblage, Parcheesi is the organized game that may be characterized as a match.  Contestants move color differentiated and matched disks by rolling a set of matched dice along paths that mirror (match) each other in visual organization with Home a

Gallery by the Bay in Stanwood Washington is presenting,  Unclad the 9th annual festival exhibition celebrating the nude figure in art.  The opening is Saturday, March 13th, 11 AM to 8 PM.  Come meet the artists, view the show, check out the related gift shop, listen to live music, and enjoy the party! The images above and below are my entries for Unclad. My Monotype, Guardian at Play , (above), is about the inseparable relationship of humanity and nature and a visual reminder to play well with others. My Monotype, First Morning , (below), is about the realization that each day is defined by what we assign meaning to; that the Realm of Possibility, we are born to each day, has infinite boarders.  In addition to these images I will also have 24 related (unclad) images for sale as cards during the exhibit. Gayle Picken, is the founder and director of Gallery by the Bay.  She and her staff of enthusiastic volunteers have put together this rema

The wonderful people at Bainbridge Arts and Craft Galley are putting together another fine show!  I just returned from dropping off my own work and had the opportunity to see some of the exceptional images and objects all made in the name of Art Couture .  The opening is March 5th from 6-8 PM.  The show will be up through March 29th. Today I am posting Eve Modeling Ready-to-Wear: The Garden Collection . She along with Kali: Fashonable Diva were printed, painted and assembled for the Art Couture exhibit. After seeing “Eve” a friend suggested I had obviously been channeling my pink and green inner Barbie.  Well, it may be true.  And perhaps a little Barbarella, Pia Zadora, and my very own Aunt Eva.   Though "Eve" could not be Eve and certainly not haute Couture without her Snakey-Do. Eve Modeling Ready-to-Wear: The Garden Collection is a Monotype Print and Wood, Assemblage. 20.5”x 18”x 2” Photo by Charles Backus.  

  The Bainbridge Arts and Crafts Gallery Exhibition, Art Couture , opens Friday, March 5th.  I had fun with this theme and look forward to seeing the other work. Kali: Fashionable Diva, is one of two print assemblages I made for the Art Couture exhibit.  Kali is the celebrated Hindu goddess associated with time and energy and redemption.  I often write about what I am working on and this is my poem about Kali. Kali Pearl like skulls adorn her breast, Cosmic garlands of conquest, Bone white trophies from a bloody occupation. She is multiform and formless, Fiercely stylish, shaped by grace, The seed of change, the sower and the reaper. Born to war, protect her own, Judge and recreate the dance, She is the “killer” goddess we call mother. We are her miracles of chance, Of birth and death through happenstance. Goddess Kali is our vehicle of deliverance. BF, 2010 Kali is an Assemblage of Monotype Print, Wood, Paint and Kid Leather Gloves.  30”x 27

Tickets are still available for the Equal Rights Washington Gala and Auction (March, 6, 2010).  This fundraiser and celebration promises to be another spectacular event  held to help finance this important political advocacy organization for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community of Washington State. Check out their website at:  http://www.equalrightswashington.org Emmy award winner, comedienne and actress Judy Gold is the guest star this year. I have donated my Monotype “Kita-Ku Wrestlers” (posted above) for auction.  Kita- Ku Wrestlers is one of an ongoing series of  paper-cut Monotype print collage whose subject is wrestling. “Kita-Ku Wrestlers” is  19.5” x 27”.