Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Iapetos (12 x 12 in) Oil on canvas over panel In our science based epoch Iapetos (Iapetus) is best know as a moon of Saturn.  Like so many astronomical names (place and product names as well), Iapetos is of Greek origin and the deep past.   When Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Astrologer and Astronomer to the Sun King,  Louis the XIV of France, identified four of Saturn’s moons in 1671 he named one of them Iapetus, a brother giant of Titan Cronus or as the Roman world would have known him, Saturn.  Science may be all about the measurable, knowable, search for truth but as Sir Isaac Newton said “In order to see beyond the horizon, one must stand on someone else’s shoulders” and so will every generation who looks out and forward, be they giants of science and reason, or the generation of Olympian Gods that followed the mythic giants of the Golden Age. A detail of my oil painting Iapetos appears on my invitation to the 2011 Vashon Island Holiday Stu

Through time animals have been the source of many of human kinds most powerful symbols. My Monotypes Totems and Animalia are two from a series that explores symbols or totems as subject. A totem is something that serves as a symbol for or emblem of an individual or group. Frequently the totem is of the natural world and there are many examples of plants and animals as totems. Finally, the totem has mythic association with the individual, family or group. Though the word totem is Ojibwe in origin and Native American animal totems immediately come to mind, totem like beliefs and totems as symbols are culturally prevalent throughout the world.   My previous blog about Io and Argus referenced Hera’s symbol or totem, the Peacock and how he got his tail.  Here are a few more examples of symbolic animal association in Greek myth and contemporary belief. Posidon’s totem would be the Horse, Athena’s the Owl, and moving across cultures Hindu Goddess Saraswati's animal s

Io and Argus, Monotype, 7.5 x 7.5 in. In my previous blog about the ship and ship builder Argo I referred to one of  Hera’s symbols or totems, the Peacock.  This blog is about my Monotype Io and Argus and one of my favorite stories in Greek myth. Zeus the father, or Zeus the philanderer, depending on your point of view, undeniably loved women (we will leave Ganymede for another blog).  His conquests, be they goddess or mortal, populated Olympus and the Heavens with demigods, nymphs and heroes.  Io, was one of  his loves.  She was a princes of Argos, and priestess of Hera.  It was perhaps in that capacity that Zeus first saw lovely Io, wooed and pursued her.  In order to deceive his, justifiably jealous wife, Goddess Hera,  Zeus cloaked the earth and his liaison with Io in clouds. The clouds however only served to rouse Hera’s suspicion and through the Cumulus, Cirrus and Stratus she descended to find Zeus standing next to a lovely white... heifer.  Guilty Zeus, sensing Hera’

My Monotype Argo depicts the engineer Argo presenting a plan of the ship that he will construct and will eventually carry Jason and his crew of heroes on their quest for the Golden Fleece. Jason’s patron Goddess Hera, here represented by her totem or symbol, the Peacock, helped Argo select the timbers from the trees of Mount Palion to build the boat.  She also supplied a limb for its keel taken from the sacred oak of the oracle at Dodona.  The talking keel would aid the heroes in their journey with its gift of prophecy.  When the ship was complete it was named for the builder Argo and thenceforth the heroes that sailed upon it would be known as Argonauts. Argo is a Monotype with metal leaf mounted to panel. (16 x 16 x 2 in.) It will be exhibited in my studio, stop number 11, during the Vashon Island Holiday Studio Tour .

The wonderful print collateral supporting Vashon’s 2011 Island Holiday Studio Tour and my own studio invitation just arrived.  The brochure, my card, my evite as well as the tour website were created by Sy and Ric Novak of Novak Creative .  Hats off, once again, for all that they do to professionally present and connect the many artists and art organizations of Vashon to the world. What is present day Istanbul was once Constantinople and once upon a time Byzantium.  My painting Byzantium is meant to reflect a way we may perceive time as history and history as the stratification through time of place. When out of political and military necessity Constantine moved the Roman capital to Byzantium in 326 it had already existed as a Greek city, situated at the only opening to the Black Sea, since 667 BC. Greek and Roman sculpture, columns, doors and marbles were taken from temples and cities throughout the Roman empire and brought to Byzantium to adorn new monuments a

While reading “The Argonauticka,” by Apollonios Rhodios, and following hero Jason and the crew of the Argo through the islands and ports of call visited by his ship Argo, I came upon several references to the gods worshiped at Samothrace and Lemnos in the Korybantes, Kabeiroi or Cabeiri Rites that were celebrated in ritual dance.  Dance, according to the Greek ideal, was one of the civilizing activities, like wine-making or music. These dances perhaps originated as Cretan, and as Dionysus/Zeus oriented purification, or coming of age, initiation rituals.  Eventually “Pyrrhicaial” male dance, became a formal competition in the Hellenic world.  Armed with swords and shields, group participants were accompanied by drum and rhythmic stamping of feet and performed in celebration as worship, for acclaim and monetary reward. Above, rust prints mounted to wood panel, Pyrrhic Dance, (8 X 10 x 1.5 in.) and below, Persian Dance, (8 x 10 x 1.5 in.), wil

I am still exploring the “Rust Print” process.   Most of what I have made so far won’t be exhibited until the Spring and Fall of 2012 but I have rusted and mounted to panel a few of my images and they will be on display at the Heron’s Nest this December. Here is a little bit about my process.  Vashon islander Bob Powell of Meadow Creature helped me to cut mild and Corten steel to the shapes I had designed using his high pressure water jet machine.  The water jet cutting process is ideal for cutting intricate shapes and because the machining introduces no stress and little if any heat the steel plates remain quite flat.  I next made the shaped steel plates to rust with several applications of hydrogen peroxide, salt and vinegar.  Next I lay the substrate I wished to transfer the rust to over the plate and thoroughly dampened it before placing wax paper or plastic over everything to hold in the moisture. Next a sheet of plate glass was placed over ev