Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

It's the second weekend of the VIVA Holiday Art Studio Tour.  The VIVA Studio Tour is all about connecting to the artists who create in almost every conceivable medium on Vashon.  Here's a wonderful article from the Beachcomber about this years tour- Art for Everyone! Welcome to Brian Fisher Studio, Stop #2  on the 2019 Holiday VIVA Art Studio Tour!

The 2nd weekend of the VIVA Art Studio Tour is December 14 & 15, 10-4.  Check out the 45, yes, 45 !!! studios and galleries on the 2019 Vashon Island Art Studio Holiday Tour!  My original digital print Eden (1/12), above, will be on exhibit in Brian Fisher Studio. #2 on tour.   I invite you to stop by and check out where I think and make and make ... more!  Here's a link to Jeff Hoyt's VOV, Voice of Vashon , interview with artist Pam Ingalls and with me.  It's all about why this VIVA tour and Vashon Island are so special!

Sacred Circle "Natchez", original digital print. Visit Brian Fisher Studio, Studio #2, on the 2019 VIVA Holiday Art Studio Tour , Dec. 14-15, 10am-4pm to see "Natchez"! From the whorls of our fingertips, the irises of our eyes, to our cells and the egg that gave each of us life, we are manifestations of the circle. My print images about circle reflect the symbolic nature of the shape. Their names reference the sacred sites, temples, cathedrals that more often than not were built and built again upon ancient and already sacred sites. My personal references for "Natchez" are the mounds, as seen from above, the Natchez Native Americans built as foundations for their temple structures on the lower Mississippi River and the Magnolia trees in blossom I saw for the first time when visiting that beautiful part of our world.

Brian Fisher Studio is stop # 2 on the VIVA Holiday Art Studio Tour December 7-8 & 14-15, 10am-4pm.  Come for the fun! Kodama- 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. -->

Brian Fisher Studio is stop #2 on the 2019 Vashon Island Holiday Art Studio Tour.  Check out all 45 tour studios and galleries at Vashon Art Tour featuring 120 plus artists! This VIVA event is a fun and informative experience! Make a date with a friend, choose your route and experience Art on Vashon!

"Knossos", Collagraph Monotype Print 1/1,  Brian Fisher.  Ariadne awaits without while her lover within unreels  the clue that reveals the quest  that will echo in worlds beyond  their imagining. Brian Fisher

"Centaurs", Brian Fisher. Monotype Print (1/1), 10 x 10 in. The Ailanthus Altissima, Tree of Heaven, planted by my Grandma Fisher had metamorphosed into a thicket resembling a giant asparagus patch by the time I was born.  My cousin, brother and I had however recognized the trees true equine nature and would each select and snap a brittle steed from the patch and gallop up the creek bank and into the pasture.  While they imagined themselves as cowboys or Indians I knew, I always knew, we were Centaurs. From “The Centaur” by May Swenson My forelock swung in my eyes, my neck arched and I snorted. I shied and skittered and reared, stopped and raised my knees, pawed at the ground and quivered. My teeth bared as we wheeled and swished through the dust again. I was the horse and the rider, and the leather I slapped to his rump spanked my own behind. Doubled, my two hoofs beat a gallop along the bank, the wind twanged in my mane, my mouth squared to the bit. And yet I sat on my

"Awakening", Brian Fisher, 10"x 10", original digital print Climate Change...  Do not assume rational action from reasonable humans.  To be human, it would seem, is to be irrational.  When faced with the Eco-Apocalypse we are engaged in, we prefer to deny scientific facts and at the same time assume science will “fix” our future.  If there ever was a common cause we are neck deep in it, each connected, one to the other and solely dependent on earth, our mother, for any kind of future.  Awake!  Please!  Now!

"Nature Boy", Brian Fisher, Monotype Print with 24k gold leaf.       When I was young my Grandma Lula and I were big fans of Nat King Cole.  Whenever we listened to records (all the time) I asked that she play his soulful recording of "Nature Boy" over & over and yes... one more time please?  This green man image is one of several monotype prints inspired by Eden Ahbez's magical  words and Cole's rendition of "Nature Boy".  Listen to the link below. Nature Boy There was a boy A very strange enchanted boy They say he wandered very far, very far Over land and sea A little shy and sad of eye But very wise was he And then one day A magic day he passed my way And while we spoke of many things Fools and kings This he said to me The greatest thing you'll ever learn Is just to love and be loved in return The greatest thing you'll ever learn Is just to love and be loved in return Eden Ahbez

Inspired by the trees and landscape around me, all seemingly illuminated from within.  This is "Seasons Change", 10 x 10 in. collograph print over wood panel. Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees. Faith Baldwin, American author.

The Goddess of Forgetting, Monotype Print by Brian Fisher "Long ago you kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag, and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay. Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue or even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen. It has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle." From the poem “Forgetfulness” and the book of poems - Questions About Angels, b y Billy Collins.

"Cygnus", my Rust Monotype Print, will be in the Vashon Center for the Arts live auction, “Masquerade: A Midsummer’s Night Dream”, September 21, 6:45-8:45 pm .  Here's what the schedule looks like for this year's annual fundraiser.  Doors open at 5:30 pm at VCA, Vashon Island WA.   Live auction tickets are $50.   Silent Auction & Appetizers, 5:30-6:30 pm. Golden ticket raffle sales $100., (100 tickets only) for $2,500. towards an art purchase or a week in a Paris apartment. Live auction viewing while enjoying specialty cocktails, beer, wine and appetizers. Live auction, 6:45-8:45 pm.  “Cygnus” represents transformation and is a Rust Monotype with 24k gold on vintage linen mounted over a coped wooden panel.   My father’s voice first conjured the mythic stories of Ursa major and minor, the Pleiades, Andromeda and Cygnus into my consciousness while we lay on our backs in the grass of my grandparent’s Kansas farm, gazing up throug