MAGGIE FISHELL - AUGUST ARTIST OF THE MONTH

 

Maggie Fishell was born and grew up in Stamford Connecticut. She is the younger sister of our choir member Nancy Fishell. She attended Stamford High School and Southern Connecticut State University where she majored in fine art and had her first solo show. She began her artistic career in photography, working in Fairfield County Connecticut with a number of different photographers. Finding that confining and wanting to stretch herself she traveled to Brazil in search of adventure (which she got) and she returned to the states as crew on a sailboat. Connecticut seemed confining after this and she followed friends to San Francisco where she had a studio.  She also worked in graphic design while continuing both photography and painting. After 10 years or so in San Francisco she moved to Bern Switzerland where she now resides. She has had numerous shows and open studios in Bern and taught a private school for a short time.

Maggie is also an accomplished singer. Her career began normally enough in church and school choirs. That led to numerous gigs with rock groups. She has also recorded with a few of them. Her most recent recording was with a Swiss group “Die Blauen Engel” (The Blue Angels) for which she also designed all of their CD jacket.

Maggie’s artwork has evolved over the years as she has pursued her interest in photography, painting and mixed media. Her inspiration comes from many sources such as the paradox of humans versus nature evidenced in ruins and buildings and the material nature of the world in which we live. 

She credits her spiritual connection to her mother Ginny. “We are all part of something larger than ourselves”, she said recently, “and the nature of our existence is to live in the paradox”. She feels her artwork is a channel for glimpses of the invisible space around and beyond us.