Brian Fisher Print, Paint and Sculpture Blog

Daniel Mendelsohn wrote, “The writers we absorb when we’re young bind us to them, sometimes lightly, sometimes with iron. In time, the bonds fall away, but if you look very closely you can sometimes make out the pale white groove of a faded scar, or the telltale chalky red of old rust.”  He was describing how Mary Renault’s books and her correspondence with him had influenced his life.  He could also have been describing the physical scars of a survivor of lightening strike. I first read “Fire from Heaven,” and the “The Persian Boy” when I was 15 and Renault cast a literally spell over how I viewed my adolescent world.   In many ways the characters and places she described continue to influence how I filter circumstance and the art I create. The biblical interpretation of  “Fire from Heaven” is about sacrifice, (burnt offerings) and retribution.  When I created my rust Monotype “Fire from Heaven” shortly after Trump won enough Electoral votes to qualify him for Presidency I admit t

All animals, plants, and fungi share an ancestor that lived about 1.6 billion years ago. Every lineage that descended from that progenitor retains parts of its original genome. All Creatures Great and Small is my Monotype about all that we have in common with our fellow creatures.   That includes of course the unique world that has shaped our evolution and the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, the DNA that we share. Humans are most closely related to the great apes of the family Hominidae.   We share 98.8 percent of our DNA with bonobos and chimpanzees. 98.4 percent   with gorillas and with mice we share nearly 90 percent of human DNA. Humans and dogs share 84 percent of their DNA!   No wonder I love my dog. She is me! Of course, humans, dogs, mice and apes are going to have DNA in common. They are all mammals. Humans and birds though are a different matter. Yet we, too, share a lot of DNA, 65 percent.   We even share a quarter of our DNA with a grain of rice. Amazi

Vashon Island's Art Studio Tour 2016, the first two weekends in December, is a great opportunity to see, visit and purchase directly from the artists! 

Roby King Galleries on Bainbridge Island asked their artists, "What or who inspires you to be an artist?"  My reply, "Story and Myth, all that stuff we come back to when looking for answers, and the master of Myth, Joseph Campbell".  Those are my inspirations.  I also would say Michael Meade and his insights keep my top spinning! I am inspired by these words by Campbell and have them on the wall in my studio:  "We have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us, the labyrinth is fully known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; 
where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; 
where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; 
where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” ― Joseph Campbell.   Posted above is my Monop