Linda Jean Fisher

The Holy Finger’s Weekly Portrait

An Ever-Changing Website Exhibition

Statement

The skin on the tip of my right forefinger is the substrate for the drawings I make using jet-black archival ink.  On 18 February 2006, I made a twenty-four year commitment to represent all six million victims of The Holocaust with a fingerprint from this finger.  I recognize the drawing that accumulates on it, and document the last one at the close of a seven-day work period. The rate of force production behind the final impression modifies the density of the ink.  This, combined with the toothy surface of my fingertip, offers a variety of lines and forms. Each piece sparks a story in my imagination that I summarize in its title: a thought process that serves as a momentary release from the intensity of my mission. 

Work Period:  19 July 2010-25 July 2010

now i stand in the center of a burning world.  but this is no ordinary inferno.  it makes the firestorms of tokyo, dresden, and hamburg look like candle flames.  what is worse, is that it is fueled by my own rage.  but this is not the same kind of anger i addressed when i turned my character defects over to a power greater than myself.  do you remember me when i believed i was a cultural luminary?  i just couldn’t keep my big mouth shut!  every word i said tasted like bile and sounded like a car without a muffler.  no, this anger is justified because it has absolutely nothing to do with me.  it has to do with the injustices i provide evidence for every time i open my ears and eyes.  today is the last day the person walking into a building ahead of you will close the door in your face.  today is the last day you will be charged twice for the same item because the store clerk felt they were entitled to a tip.  today is the last day you will be mistreated by someone wearing a name tag stating “i’m here to help you.”  today is the last day you will be told that your home heating and air-conditioning unit needs a new motor when it really doesn’t.  today is the last day your mother treats you like you have a disease when all you have is a case of unrestricted acceptance.  today is the last day you are betrayed by your spouse.  today is the last day a deranged psychopath rapes and murders your daughter.  today is the last day a suicide bomber blows themselves up because they hate the americans, the israelis, or the martians.  today is the last day a scam artist talks an elderly couple into investing their life savings in a hoard of gold coins found buried in the mountains of peru.  today is the last day the driver of a sport utility vehicle cuts you off because they believe that bigger means entitled.  today is the last day you’re denied health benefits by your employer due to corporate hooey.  today is the last day your physician asserts that your upper respiratory infection is caused by your eighteen year old cat and “you only need to get rid of it.”  today is the last day all the people you have ever loved turn their backs on you because you don’t “play on their side of the street.”  right before the world was completely incinerated, everyone recognized their wrongdoings, made amends,  and we were saved.  according to one study:  one in every four retail transactions during the second world war was illegal.

Other Exhibitions and Projects (Past, Present, and/or Future)

A DIFFERENT COUNTRY

A New Installation of Paintings by Linda Jean Fisher

Artists Reception on November 16th, 2008

At Time & Space Limited / TSL in Hudson



Arts Organization Time & Space Limited presents Linda Jean Fisher’s “A Different Country” from November 8th through 30th, with a reception for the artist on November 16th from 11am to 1pm.  “A Different Country” is being shown in conjunction with the Met Opera Live in HD presentation of John Adam’s “Doctor Atomic” which will be screened on November 8th, 9th and 16th.

TSL is located at 434 Columbia Street in Hudson NY. The exhibit is free and open to the public. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 11am to 3pm, one hour before weekend events and by appointment. For more information call 518-822-8448, email fyi@timeandspace.org or visit us online at www.timeandspace.org.

Ms. Fisher takes her fascination with color, sense of humor and appetite for information, and blends them together to create a series of lyrical paintings. The pieces tell a narrative, the story of the development of the atomic bomb. In the hands of this artist, it all makes aesthetic sense. (D. Dominick Lombardi, “A Language of Color Tells the Tale of the Atomic Bomb,” The New York Times, 17 October 2004)

“A Different Country” features paintings on paper by Peekskill-based artist Linda Jean Fisher. This installation uses paintings, citations from history, and Fisher’s own writings to tell the story of the making of the atomic bomb and how its detonation changed the world. This gallery exhibit coincides with the screening of the Metropolitan Opera’s “Doctor Atomic” on November 8th, 9th and 16th, and the combination of Linda Jean Fisher’s visual art with John Adam’s spectacular opera is a thematically unified explosive combination.

“Doctor Atomic” is just one of the Metropolitan Operas being broadcast by TSL during the 2008-2009 season. For more information regarding Linda Jean Fisher’s “A Different Country” or broadcasting of John Adam’s “Doctor Atomic” please call us at 518-822-8448, email us at fyi@timeandspace.org, visit us online at www.timeandspace.org, or see our November Calendar in print or online.

Now in its 18th year in Hudson, TSL has established itself as a beacon and leader in the neighborhood, county, and state, shaping the lives of community members through innovative and exciting cultural projects of quality and substance. Its mission is to educate, enliven, and expand the artistic quality of life in the community it serves.

ALAS Speech Project
July/August 2007

Fred Gillen Jr. recorded my full-length reading of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s “Speech to the Association of Los Alamos Scientists” on the sixty-second anniversary of the Trinity detonation: 16 July 2007.  I mailed out fifty copies on the sixty-second anniversary of the Nagasaki atomic bombing: 9 August 2007. To learn more about this project, download the PDF file of the “ALAS Speech Project Description” here.

Speech to the Association of Los Alamos Scientists

“The Color of Loyalty:  A Tribute to Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer”
7 January 2007 – 11 February 2007
1929 Gallery
United States Military Academy, West Point

This installation uses paintings, citations from history, principles of color science, and my own writings, to teach the value of loyalty as it manifests itself in personal integrity, fellowship, and humanity.  Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer’s contributions as a teacher, physicist, and public servant exemplified his love for the United States of America.  This exhibition celebrates loyalty in his name.  Download the fully illustrated exhibition catalogue here.