Bob Fish is a craftsman/artist based out of Portland, OR.  He holds an A.F.A. in Arts Education from Parkland College inChampaign, IL and a B.F.A. in General Fine Arts from the Pacific Northwest College of Art.  Bob works with a wide range of media including wood, clay, watercolor, collage, photography, stone, amongst other things.  Since graduating he has been working as a craftsman for a furniture manufacturer in Portland.  He approaches his current employment as a paid master’s degree program as he was not at all familiar with furniture building or design.  Because of this opportunity his most recent work is focused on craftsmanship and creating functional works of art.  As a maker he has and still feels the need to create work with the intention of repeated personal and physical interaction.  Form and function are the two major driving forces for the work he has created since graduating from P.N.C.A.

or Albatross gallery Bob is returning to his B.F.A. thesis focus which was education.  His thesis was centered around the idea that America’s education system is failing on all accounts.  He created work challenging the current and past systems of K-12 education; from corruption in charter schools to the early development of public educational institutions.  As a college student he felt the need to attack the system in which he was a part of (college institutions) but was discouraged from doing so because of the likely hood of being seen as a hypocrite.  He instead looked at his development as a student from K-12 and created work that was about his personal experience.  However, now with four years separating his graduation and an 18 month old daughter Ellie, he looks to revisit his thesis and challenge the idea of higher education as being the leading way to a “successful” life.  As a parent his concern for the education system from pre-K to P.H.D. has only been magnified and hopefully his work for Albatross will reflect that concern.