{"id":16,"date":"2025-01-30T20:19:42","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T20:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/fichter\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2025-03-07T20:53:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T20:53:39","slug":"critters-and-characters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/fichter\/critters-and-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Critters and Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Baby<\/a>
Baby Gene Pool Gets the News (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Fichter\u2019s work is populated by a personal set of symbols derived from art history, mythology, and his Southern roots. Taking the form of animals, humanoids, and mutants, they appear repeatedly in his work, comprising a visual lexicon for the artist\u2019s explorations of the human condition.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"They<\/a>
They Call This Area “The Garden of Gods,” (1980) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Winged Flying Dog is a silent observer of life\u2019s dramas. Bones, or Mr. Bones, was developed from medieval and Renaissance memento mori, objects that serve as reminders of death, such as skulls in still life paintings. Fichter\u2019s spirited skeleton walks and talks in wry captions and comic-like speech balloons, and even has a wife. Their child Baby Gene Pool is a mutant cyclops created by \u201cBetter Living Through Electricity and Chemistry,\u201d a tongue-in-cheek play on a DuPont Company advertising slogan (\u201cBetter Things for Better Living\u2026Through Chemistry\u201d). Fish-Out-Oh-Water, another ecological victim, and others\u2014Mr. Roboto, the missle-headed muscle man Mr. X, and Born-Again Art Ass\u2014serve as alter-egos and allegorical figures that embody Fichter\u2019s concerns about the environment, nuclear proliferation, and capitalism. They are sometimes watched over by the Lone Cowboy of the Apocalypse, a surrogate for the artist. Fichter\u2019s witty titles underscore the satirical inflection of the sometimes ambiguous narratives acted out by these characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Bones<\/a>
Bones Explaining Death to Fish Out of Water (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Edward<\/a>
Edward Teller Sez We Did It to Make the World Safe for Democracy! (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Baby<\/a>
Baby Gene Pool Finds Bones Asleep on the Sands of Time (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Baby<\/a>
Baby Gene Pool Gets the News (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Red\/White<\/a>
Red\/White and Blue Bones in Outer Space (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Bones<\/a>
Bones and Rock Garden Drawings (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Bones<\/a>
Bones and Kodzu (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Bones<\/a>
Bones Goes into the Timber Business (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Bones<\/a>
Bones Explaining Mass Transportation as a Communist Plot to Baby Gene Pool (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Bones<\/a>
Bones in Western Kansas\u2014Year 1995 (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a>
The Ice Age Cometh! The Ice Age Cometh! (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Bones<\/a>
Bones Explaining Death to A Fish Out of Water (1980)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"They<\/a>
They Call This Area “The Garden of Gods,” (1980) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Camouflage<\/a>
Camouflage Bones (1982)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Blue<\/a>
Blue Bones (1982)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fichter\u2019s work is populated by a personal set of symbols derived from art history, mythology, and his Southern roots. Taking the form of animals, humanoids, and mutants, they appear repeatedly in his work, comprising a visual lexicon for the artist\u2019s explorations of the human condition. Winged Flying Dog is a silent observer of life\u2019s dramas. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/fichter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/fichter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/fichter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/fichter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/fichter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/fichter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/fichter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions\/159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/fichter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}