Low Down Articles
Artist Profiles - Marion Fischer
Article 17 of 73
From the book Artists of the Gatineau Hill by Catherine Joyce. This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the August 22, 2007 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Reaching Beyond
Marion Fischer has a sense of risk-taking adventure that informs her painting and her life. Born in Germany she came to Canada at the age of six. "My parents are true adventurers and they instilled in me a desire to try new things, to take risks. Life is short and there are all kinds of exciting things out there. You must reach for them." This reaching has never left her.
Although her talent for drawing was recognized early, she found the exact rendering of reality less interesting as she grew up. Art for her became increasingly about communication, about expressing deeper things.
The road to full expression took a circuitous route, gathering depth and wider perspective with each new challenge. She qualified with a Bachelor of Nursing Science from Queen's in 1983, working for over ten years as a nurse, and she completed her BFA in 1988 and then her B.Ed. in 1994, to become a teacher of both science and art. With her medical husband she moved often, working in the north and throughout Ontario. It was not until 2004, home again in the Gatineau Hills, that she launched into her painting full time.
"Through all those years I kept coming back to art - it haunted me. When I am painting, time stands still. It is nonexistent. I believe that anything that makes you feel like that is giving you a message - pay attention! However, I also learned through my years in nursing and teaching that art is a journey. What art is about comes from your experiences -you see everything through its filter."
Marion's talent for high realism is wedded to an open heart. Her technical skill is masterful, her soul response immediate, but the process itself is mysterious. She waits. "My art always starts with a conceptual trigger. I get excited by an idea - it could be a visual trigger like trees or the juxtaposition of two things. All of a sudden the reaction between the two brings about new meaning. This winter it has been icicles, snow and ice on water or rock. I have no idea why. It is all intuitive. I only know I must go with it."
Her images take on a life of their own - become invested with symbolism.
"They represent things going on in my head. The thread of continuity comes through a layering of images that compel me. Working in series supports my fascination with patterns, how they reflect life - the way life shatters our patterns, challenging us to synthesize a whole new template."
Through her delicate floral series, imprinted with personal poetry and letters reflecting each individual flower, through her social commentary on game-playing with her "X's & O's" paintings or the unfolding designs of intricate patterns inspired by William Morris from the Threads series - there is always an element of surprise, as if the artist herself has come upon a magical discovery.
"So much of art is about trust, about gathering the enormous amount of faith it takes to allow the process to take hold of you and find its way. You never know when the epiphanies will come. You just have to take the risk and go on the journey, no matter how long it takes."
For Marion, art and life mirror each other. In the few short years she has been painting full time, her art has taken off. Represented by Dale Smith Gallery in Ottawa, her paintings are now reaching a wider audience.
By waiting, by reaching beyond and holding the tension of opposites and of exploration - even over years - Marion Fischer has come to that place Carl Jung speaks of when the 'third thing not given' (tertium non datur) finally appears.