Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

The world turns.  It’s a fact.  I first witnessed the proof on a black and white Zenith TV.  A peg legged modern marvel and the centerpiece of my Middle-American living room.  The date was 1969 and US Apollo Mission Eleven had just landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin upon Earth’s moon.  There for all to see from a totally new perspective was Earth, our (black and white) home, spinning in space. Untangling my thoughts to blog about a video and TV cabinet I made for a friend and patron has been difficult.  Telamones was designed to conceal (and reveal) a flat screen TV.   In the process of creating the cabinet I thought  about many things relating to TV and how historically the information we receive informs and shapes our perceptions.  In each epoch our worldview is framed by technological advances and of course the culture  into which each new technology is born. My father told me he first saw a “murky” television image in 1932 at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. 

Much of history is astronomically oriented.  The Greek Historian Herodotus described precisely the phase of the moon in his account of the battle of Marathon.  A battle that is considered a defining moment in the development of European culture. In  490 BCE 10,000 Greeks met the assembled forces of the Persian empire, a seemingly invincible army of approximately 20,000 infantry and cavalry, twenty six miles north of Athens on the Plain of Marathon.   The runner Pheidippides was sent to Sparta requesting aid and he returned with the message that Sparta would send reinforcements but only after the conclusion of its religious festival of Karneia which forbade battle until the full moon (another six days). When Greek generals concluded that battle could not wait, a line of infantry equal in length to that of the Persians was formed and the Greek warriors attacked the Persian line at a dead run.  In the ensuing battle an estimated 6,400 Persians were killed while only 192 Gre

Lost, Monotype 6 x 6 in. I have five Monotypes at the Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island during the month of December.   Roby King mounts an annual small works show each year and I was invited to exhibit in the 2010 Small Works Exhibition.   Above and Below are two of the Monotypes for sale and currently on display. Halcyone, Monotype, 6 x 6 in.

 Parthenope, Monotype, 6x 6 in. The last weekend, Dec. 12-13,  of the 2010 Vashon Island Holiday Studio Tour is coming up.  There is lots of wonderful art by Vashon Island artists to see and buy.  My studio is #12 on the map .  Please stop in to take a look at my print, paint and assemblage work and all the glass, dyed fabric and toys that Laughing Magpies and Tiffany Huslig have created to show and sell. A great place to start your tour  this weekend is the Blue Heron Gallery’s year end finale Masters in Miniature . The exhibition showcases art by 43 Vashon artists in mediums that include: painting, pottery, wood, glass, tile, sculpture, printmaking, fiber, photography and mixed media.  No work is larger than 7 x 7 in.  This annual exhibition, curated by Gallery Curator Janice Mallman and artist Carol Schwennesen,  is exceptional and should not be missed. Posted here are two of the Monotypes I made for The Blue Heron Gallery’s Masters in Miniature e

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.

Art and Hearth In the next couple days I will be posting several images of my work as it is displayed for the 2010 Vashon Island Art Studio Tour .  Above is a shot of the hearth and posted below are images of two Monotype prints featured there. Battle of the Centaurs, Monotype (1/1), 14 1/8 x 35 1/2 in A Thousand Ships, Monotype, 14 3/4 x 11 in.

Invictus, Monotype, 15 1/4 x 22 in. Although my surname might conjure a heritage comfortable at sea, I have had little experience with boats or for that matter large bodies of water until moving to an island in the Pacific Northwest.  My friendship with families who fish professionally and the stories I have heard them tell have however engaged my imagination and sincere appreciation of what ingenuity, fortitude and mind over matter it must surely take to make a living from a boat afloat at sea.  I find the concept frightening.  Much of my fear though is not about the hard work or uncertainty of nature but the dependency upon ones shipmates, their strengths, weaknesses and the emotional baggage all of us are born to and carry in our personal odysseys.  Several Monotypes I have made for the 2010 Vashon Island Art Studio Tour illustrate my reflections upon all of the above and are presented within the context of Odysseus’s misadventures and long voyage home to

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.

Birth of Athena,  Monotype, 22x30 in. Artists participating in the 2010 Vashon Island Holiday Art Studio Tour are preparing their studios and finishing work to exhibit and sell during the spectacular, annual, all island event.  If you live on Vashon this event is free!  If not, for the price of a ferry boat ticket, forty one studios and galleries will display work from over 100 Vashon Island artists.  All of this artwork is yours to peruse and purchase the first two weekends in December.  Here is the Studio Tour link to the art map and all the studios you will want to see.  http://vashonislandartstudiotour.com/Holiday2010/ This year my studio is number 12 on the map .  I will exhibit my print, painting and assemblage art and will share my studio with the fused glass and dyed fabric  creations of Sooze Bloom deLeon Grossman and Benjamin Grossman (better known as Laughing Magpies), as well as Tiffany Seymour Huslig who this year is  making toys to delight your fam

I just returned from a wonderful opening and artist reception at   Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island. Each October Andrea Roby and Wes King invite artists to exhibit work in their annual print exhibition and this year I was honored to be asked to show with seven of the most amazing print artists.  Above I have posted the card invitation.  No More Stones , one of my Monotypes in this exhibit is shown below.  Several people at the opening asked what inspired the imagery.  The image is intended as a dark reminder about the realities of war.  1) All wars are the same war.  2) In war their are no winners, only losers.  3) In this age where war is waged by pushing buttons we need to think about real consequences surrounding conflict before we act. It was inspired by the the musical genius of Enter the Haggis, their song titled No More Stones and its Chorus: Hey, ho, the wind has blown Won the war, now there's nothing to show Seeds sewn, time to grow