Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1104799
100 Psychology who practiced for over 40 years, Fisher came to her art in an unusual way. "In 1991 I had brain surgery and had an out-of-body experience," she says. "I didn't want to die, and I was told I needed to paint." Soon after recovering, Fisher went to an art store and got the biggest canvas she could find, along with some oil paints. Over the next ten years she taught herself to paint, developing her own style by learning from the masters. en, five years ago, she had a dream in which she was told: "Go smash glass, and we will guide you." e morning after the dream, Fisher says she went downstairs to her kitchen and saw a green wine bottle on her counter. "My husband gave me a mallet and a cinder block, and I covered the bottle with the dish towel and smashed it." Using a glue gun, she attached the shards to an oil painting of her garden. "It looked messy at first, but then I began developing every step [of the process] and kept getting better." Now, instead of smashing wine bottles, Fisher buys sheets of colored glass and cuts and snips them into shapes before laying them over her oil paintings, which serve almost as templates. "I aim to have each picture come alive and speak to the [viewer]," says Fisher, who also does commissioned pieces. "I want those who see these works to feel invited into a place that is safe and come back refreshed." BEST ARTIST ADVICE: "Nothing happens if you're afraid. ere is no fear except what you make up." Plein Air Watercolorist and Printmaker Amy Hourihan, a plein air watercolorist and printmaker, was a nurse practitioner working in hospice for many years until she retired in 2011. As an antidote to the boredom she encountered, she began taking art classes, including watercoloring and printmaking with Joel Janowitz (Boston), plein air watercoloring with Gary Tucker (Boston), and woodcut techniques with Matt Brown (New Hampshire). "I credit those three as being my major teachers," says Hourihan, who works out of Little Harbor Studios in Marblehead, where she lives. Growing up on an 85-acre farm in Rye, New Hampshire, Hourihan developed a reverence for nature, which inspires much of her work. "My Caribbean series focuses on the weather, the clouds especially," she says. "My husband and I explored the Caribbean on our boat, and I do a lot of watercoloring on the boat. I'm anxious onboard in terms of weather and am always reading the sky." Very often, says Hourihan, her watercolors inform her prints. Inspired by the serendipity of a watercolor, she'll do a quick painting on a plate, move the colors around, and make a monotype. More recently, she's been exploring encaustic—inspired by her beekeeper son—and figure drawing. "I work in so many different media that it's easy to get scattered," admits Hourihan. "But I don't feel inspired if I'm just doing one medium. I don't make a living doing this, so it's about exploring my abilities and ideas and giving me a chance to play." BEST ARTIST ADVICE: "Do it again. If you start to feel like you're repeating an idea or it's getting gimmicky, throw it away and do it again." Plein air artist Amy Hourihan