Work and projects by Gary Fisher

Gary Fisher

Selected Mixed Media/Sculpture

My mixed-media work is primarily conceptual in nature. Some of the work is purposely contraditory and many of the pieces deal in one way or another with the nature of reality.

Homage to Magritte with Fleeting Clouds, 2019, 12" x 12"

C 2019 Gary Fisher
aerosol enamel on canvas, dye diffusion photograph

Homage to John Conway, 2020, 10 x10"x2.25"

C 2020 Gary Fisher
aerosol alkyd resin based ename on canvas, LED matrix display, microcontroller, custom software

Floating Island, 2021, 2" x2" x2.25"

C 2021 Gary Fisher
rosewood, found stone, acrylic column

"Floating Island" represents a contemporary interpretation of Suiseki. This mixed media work appears in the book " Small Stones - Worlds Apart" by Thomas Elias, VSANA, 2021, page 268.

The mathematician John Conway died in 2020. In the 1970's he came up with "The Game of Life" which encorporated a set of six algorithms to govern the birth, life, and death of a population of cells. This game became a part of the early work in the field of cellular automata. Since Conway is now symbolically "in the clouds" I felt it appropriate to combine a painting of the sky with a rear LED matrix display that plays the game of life until an initial population either dies out or reaches a stable population. The LED cells dimly shine through the clouds in the painting until a stable end is reached. A new simulation is begun each time a person walks in front of the painting. I finished three of these works in 2020.

Light Sculpture, Untitled, 2023, 5" x5" x 17"

C 2023 Gary Fisher
From the series "Light Sculptures", 2023-2024
heat-formed clear acrylic, milled walnut base, imbedded LED matrix and brightness controller.

Soon to be a Memory, 2021, 3" x 3.9" x8"

C 2021 Gary Fisher
Australian red coolibah burl, acrylic paint

Origami Folding Sky, 2024, 15" x9" x 7"

C 2024 Gary Fisher
digital photograph, archival mounting board, acrylic

Atonal Sound Study 3 with Randomness, 2022, 17" x 8" x5"

C 2022 Gary Fisher
Ultrasonic distance sensors, switch, RGB LED, potentiometers, speakers, microcontroller, midi controller, acrylic, mdf wood, custom software.

The impetus for this ongoing series stemmed from my desire to express line drawings in light and in three dimensions. In this series, clear acrylic sheets are formed into three-dimensional sculptures. These are edge lit to realize two-dimensional shapes along their perimeters.

In 2022 I designed three unique sound devices each having atonal scales with notes that sometimes change by a given number of steps depending on the last note activated. Each of these devices has unique characteristics both in terms of the method of activation, programming, number of channels, and instrument synthesized. The first is activated by interrupting a given channel's laser beam. The second and third use ultrasonic distance sensors to choose notes on a given channel depending on the distance from the device. One of these, Atonal Sound Study #3, includes randomness to determine when a note will change (up or down) and by how much.

These are not musical instruments in the traditional sense and question preconceptions of what musical instruments should be.