Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

It's almost Mom Day and the second weekend of the VIVA Tour, May 12 &13.  Check out Brian Fisher Studio stop # 2.  Link to map here: http://vivartists.com/StudioTour/Spring2018/index.html

The Tour begins!  Brian Fisher Studio is stop #2 on VIVA Art Studio Tour.  Vashon Island Visual Artists invite you to participate, connect and interact when they throw open their studio doors in a sharing, showing, sales event the first two weekends of May,  5-6 and 12-13, 2018.   Here is a link to the studio tour map. VIVA STUDIO TOUR Brian Fisher Studio, 23520 147 AVE SW, Vashon Island WA, Tour stop #2, Spring 2018  

My monotype print, The River of Forgetting, like several prints on display in my studio during VIVA's Spring Studio Tour , is about a betwixt and between liminal state of being.  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 and reincarnate, that soul would drink from Lethe, the River of Forgetting and be cleansed of memory.     The River of Forgetting, Monotype print with 24k gold leaf by Brian Fisher  (22 1/2 x 29 in. )

Check out Satyr Play during the VIVA Studio Tour, May 5-6 & 12-13 at Brian Fisher Studio, no. 2 on the Tour. Satyr Plays, a genre of ancient Greek drama, are named after the mythological satyrs who were half-goat, half-man, highly sexual creatures and often part of Dionysus' entourage. Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy (among other things), was considered by the Greeks as the patron of theatre.  A Satyr Play might itself be tragic, but the satyr chorus, with its irreverent outlook on life provided comedic relief and made the play more interesting and less somber than the tragedies that proceeded and followed it.   I designed the satyrs within my "Satyr Play" first as elements of a frieze beneath my studio's eves.  Until I find time to make that happen they will appear as monotype print imagery!  Satyr Play,  Monotype Print  (1/1)  by Brian Fisher,  7 x 29 1/2 in.

Not a melody, not rhythm.... harmony is all cord. Betwixt and Between, the reality that is not about a moment past or present, but all moments, collected and coalesced... it is the now that is Harmony. Below is my attempt at describing Harmony, visually.  At 6 x 6 in. it is a mall Betwixt & Between Monotype exhibited for your enjoyment.  Please view "Harmony" at stop # 2 during the VIVA Studio tour- May 5-6 and 12-13, the first two weekends in May! Link to Map here,  VIVA Studio Tour

Every rite of passage involves a journey, twist and recognition of center.  That still point is the source of possibility, where new horizons are recognizable.  It's continually active.  If you are alive you seek that point.  It is the eternal now.  It is Betwixt and Between.  What happens next?  Now! Here is my distillation of Betwixt and Between.  A Monotype print mounted to panel on display and for sale, yes the moment can be for sale, during the VIVA Art Studio tour.

"Morning Mist"(1/3) is a ltd. edition linocut print displayed and for sale at Brian Fisher Studio, stop # 2 on the VIVA (Vashon Island Visual Artist) Spring Studio Tour.  Map link here- VIVA Studio Tour   "Morning Mist"is intended to evoke that feeling of mystery, displacement and suspended time that fog will conjure when encountered.  This happens often where I live and I revel in the cloud that muffles sound and redefines the familiar. Morning Mist (1/3), Linocut by Brian Fisher, 19 1/2 x 27 in.

VIVA Art Studio Tour is less than a week away and I have been busy finishing and framing work that will be on display in my studio, stop # 2 on the tour.  I just framed this mixed media monoprint with 24k gold leaf yesterday.  It's called "Nature Boy".  Here is a link to the VIVA Studio Tour site for more information.

We've all heard the phrase- "I know nothing about art but I know what I like when I see it".  Liking is a jumping off place for collecting and with collecting comes knowledge and a broader appreciation for whatever is being collected.  People collect Art for many reasons and yesterday April 28, art patrons and friends of Quartermaster Press gathered at VCA to discuss just why they collect.  It was a fun afternoon and we got to hear many personal stories from those who attended and whose collections made up the "Collectors' Wall" that was our backdrop and the focus of the event.  Thanks to everyone who could come and share the conversation. Quartermaster Press 25's next special events will be First Friday, May 4 at 5:30, a talk by Suzanne Moore about Tradition and Transformation in printmaking and at 7:00 a Multi-plate Etching Demonstration by Deborah Taylor.  For more details link here to Vashon Center for the Arts . 

VIVA, Vashon Island Visual Artists, invite you to participate, connect and interact when they throw open their studio doors in a sharing, showing, sales event the first two weekends of May,  5-6 and 12-13, 2018.   Here is a link to the studio tour map. VIVA STUDIO TOUR "SALIX" Monotype Print by Brian Fisher  6x6 in. Salix, The Willow Wife, is one of my new prints on display this VIVA tour,  Available at studio stop # 2. 

Brian Fisher and Debi Shandling Crawford demonstrate Collagraphy at VCA Koch Gallery Here is a YouTube link to the Collagraphy Demonstration by Brian Fisher , filmed last weekend, April 14, when Brian Fisher and Debi Shandling Crawford demonstrated Collagraphy plate and print making in the Vashon Center for the Arts, Koch Gallery to a receptive audience of art and print enthusiasts. Thanks VCA and Rick Skillman's video crew for filming the event! Basically, a Collagraph plate is made by gluing relatively flat or thin elements to a substrate.  In this demonstration paper was glued to a plexiglass plate to create shallow relief that was then inked as an intaglio and relief plate, then printed to paper on a small etching press. This was just one of the QMP 25 special events.  Next weekend, Saturday April 28 at 1:30 Quartermaster Press and Brian Fisher will host "The Collectors Conversation" at Vashon Center for the Arts.  We’ll find out

Brian Fisher, assisted by Debi Shandling Crawford, will share the art of Collagraphy plate and print making tomorrow, April 14, in the Vashon Center for the Arts, Koch Gallery at 1:30 pm.  Art and printmaking enthusiasts please join us to learn about this very simple way to make and print a collagraph. Collagraphy refers to a collage of materials glued to a substrate to create a printable plate.  Ink may be applied to the high surfaces of the plate with a brayer, like a relief print, or ink may be applied to the entire plate and then removed by wiping from the upper surfaces leaving ink between and around collage elements, resulting in an intaglio print.  This demo is the first of many scheduled events (check out the VCA link above for dates) in celebration of the Quartermaster Press Studio's 25 Anniversary.   Collagraphy Plates 1&2 (left) and Prints from plate 2 (right)