Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

"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.

Many Greek and Roman myths tell of the twin brothers Castor and Pollux. They are known as the Dioscuri in Greek and as Gemini or Castores in Latin. The brothers shared Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece in the Argonautica and they’re the familial heroes when Theseus and Pirithous abducted their sister Helen. Though their mother was Leda, Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, King of Sparta, and Pollux was the divine son of Zeus who had seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. They are sometimes said to have been born from an egg or eggs, along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. Castor was killed in a family feud after he and Pollux fell in love with and abducted Phoebe and Hilaeira, consorts of their cousins Lynceus and Idas.  Pollux asked his father Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini.  Sharing also meant they had to spend equal time in the underworld.  This divisio

  "Every myth has a mother, some more stylish than others...  Hebraic myth doth suggest that Eve dressed better than the rest." Welcome to the runway!  The first two weekends in December, 2-3 & 9-10, Goddess Eve will be modeling Ready to Wear, "The Garden Collection"! Step Out, Step Up, YOU CAN SEE THE SHOW!  Stop #5, Brian Fisher Studio, when Vashon Island Artists throw open doors, windows, yards and yardarms in welcome during the Vashon Island Art Holiday Studio Tour!!

This is "Dryad", a collograph print depicting my vision of a wood spirit or nymph.   In Greek drys signifies "oak". Thus, dryads are the nymphs of oak trees, though the term has come to be used for all tree nymphs in general.   Traditionally dryads are female and in myth are often pursued by another woodland creature, the Satyr.  But I thought why should they have all the fun, or unwanted attention, so my dryad is male and experiencing a seasonal change.  "Dryad" is currently showing at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island Washington, November 3-27, 2017.

"The Willow Men," another of my Green Man myth interpretations is currently showing at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island, November 3-27-2017.    The Green Man myth represents a union of humanity and the vegetative world.  He is the sacrificial human connection to the plant cycle of birth, reproduction, revitalization and resurrection. Known by many names through time and a spectrum of cultures, including but not limited to: Osiris, Dionysus, Orpheus, Adonis, Cernnunos, Khidir etc… He is the god born to sacrifice and through his union with the goddess to be born again.  I think that this myth is particularly appealing because the Green Man's seasonal life mirrors our own limited mortality. "The Willow Men" image is a Collograph. The plate from which it was printed was made by using acrylic medium to attach paper that I had previously embossed to a plexiglass plate.  Any texture thin enough t

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.

"Spirit of the Woods" monoprint with gold leaf,  8 3/4 x 25 in. My Monoprint “Spirit of the Woods” shows at Roby King Gallery , November 3-27, 2017, when Denise Kester and I exhibit our personal interpretations of myth in print and paint.  My work is about the myths I’ve been exploring: vegetative deities like Europe's “Green Man”, Japan’s “Kodama” and the Greek myths about Goddesses Demeter and Persephone. I grew up on the high plains of northwestern Kansas.  Demeter would be at home there where grain (wheat and corn) rules, but unless they are planted and nurtured, trees there are rare.  Perhaps that is why I've always recognized what is special and sacred in trees and why I am drawn to these ancient vegetative stories that exist across cultures. "The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life and activity; it afford

Ilse Reimnitz and I shared Monotype Print techniques with an incredible group of print curious artists at BARN , (Bainbridge, Artisan Resource Network) last weekend.  I came away inspired by what we made together, by those who organized our wonderful weekend and the creative space that so beautifully supports artists pursuing many paths and print medium and workshops like ours in particular.  Thank you!

“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.

My Monotype Print "Animal Parade" with several other animal themed rust prints and collographs  are currently part of the Vashon Heron's Nest exhibit "Coyotes, Cougars and Bears, Oh My!" You may love or fear the wild but you have to deal with it when you have chosen to live on Vashon.   This mercurial subject is explored this September by Margaret Tylczak, Paula Allegrina and Brian Fisher at the Heron's Nest Gallery, 17600 Vashon Hwy SW Vashon Island, WA.