About the Artist - for Michael Reimer, That Fish Guy

I was at work on a Saturday, waiting to do my part of a system upgrade, when I typed 'Fish Print' into Google. I was looking to buy fish art for my office. I ran across a web site for Gyotaku and took an immediate interest in the subject. I spent the next few months researching everything I could about gyotaku, practicing in my mind how I was going to make my own fish prints. I even bought a few through the internet.

It finally got warm enough the following March to catch a few bluegill in a local pond. Armed with red acrylic paint, news print and my then 8 year old daughter as my assistant, we made some prints which look like fish shaped blobs of ink. Not discouraged, I practice and practice until I feel comfortable enough to use rice paper, rather than news print and block printing ink, rather than acrylic paint.

Fast forward several months to the point where I liked them enough to start framing them and hanging them in my office. Friends of my wife ask if they can buy some as gifts for their husbands and I think hmm......
The following fall, I signed up for my first art show. Since then, I've joined the Nature Printing Society http://www.natureprintingsociety.org/ and the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen http://www.pennsylvaniacrafts.com/. I served as the vice-president of the Nature Printing Society for 2013 and 2014, have taught beginner fish printing at five of their annual workships and have been their webmaster since 2017.

In February of 2008, I became a juried member of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. Juried status in the PGC is an honor awarded to work deemed to show excellence in craftsmanship, resolved design and unique voice or style. I am honored to be a juried member.

All of my art work is hanging up in my office between shows. The only prints that I mat and/or frame are ones that I'd keep as my own if I never sold another. Since I catch the fish (or in some cases, was with a friend who caught a fish), I have a connection to each print. I do most of my fishing in Montgomery County, Chester County and Berks County PA.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Michael Reimer

2021 Fishing Log
April 17 - Local Pond -  2 Bluegill
April 18 - Local Pond - 2 Bluegill, 1 Pumkinseed Sunfish, 1 Largemouth Bass
April 19 - Local Pond - 4 Bluegill, 3 Pumpkinseed Sunfish
May 14 - Local Pond - 5 Pumpkinseed Sunfish, 15 Bluegill
May 20 - Codorus Creek - 8 Brown Trout
May 20 - Kishocoquillas Creek - 2 Rainbow Trout
May 21 - Tipton Run  - 3 Brown Trout, 5 Brook Trout
May 21 - Little Juniata Creek -  1 Sucker, 5 Brown Trout
May 22 - Little Juniata Creek - 10 Brown Trout
June 7 - Local Pond, 7 Bluegill, 1 Largemouth Bas
June 20 - Sinepunxent Bay - 1 Croaker
June 24 - Atlantic Ocean - 1 Spot
June 24 - Sinepunxent Bay - 10 Black Sea Bass, 1 Flounder
June 25 - Ocean City MD Inlet - 1 Striped Basss
2020 Fishing Log
March 18 - Local Pond - 1 Pumpkinseed Sunfish, 6 Bluegill
March 19 - Local Pond - 12 Bluegill
March 20 - Local Pond - 7 Bluegill
March 21 - Local Pond - 2 Pumpkinseed Sunfish, 13 Bluegill
March 24 - Local Pond - 1 Pumpkinseed Sunfish, 7 Bluegill
April 2 - Local Pond - 10 Bluegill
April 10 - Skippack Creek - 1 Brown Trout, 1 Rainbow Trout
April 23 - Local Pond - 1 Bluegill, 1 Largemouth Bass
April 26 - Pickering Creek - 2 Brown Trout
April 28 - French Creek - 2 Brown Trout, 1 Smallmouth Bass, 1 Fallfish
May 3 - Perkiomen Creek - Nothing
May 13 - Skippack Creek -1 Rainbow Trout, 4 Chub
May 21 - Skippack Creek, 3 Redbreast Sunfish, 1 Smallmouth Bass
May 22 - Skippack Creek, 2 Rainbow Trout
May 25 - Local Pond - 10 Bluegill
May 26 - Skippack Creek, 2 Brown Trout, 2 Smallmouth Bass
June 4 - Skippack Creek, 1 Rainbow Trout, 1 Smallmouth Bass, 2 Bluegill
June 7 - Local Pond, 2 Bluegill, 1 Pumpkinseed Sunfish
June 9 - Local Pond - 12 Bluegill, 1 Pumpkinseed Sunfish
June 12 - Schuylkill Canal - 6 Bluegill, 6 Green Sunfish, 1 Smallmouth Bass
June 16 - Schuylkill Canal - 6 Bluegill, 6 Green Sunfish
June 25 - Schuylkill Canal - 1 Green Sunfish, Smallmouth Bass
June 30 - Some random pond in Lehigh County - 5 Bluegill
June 30 - Hay Creek, 2 Brown Trout, 1 Bluegill, 1 Largemouth, 1 Sucker, 1 Green Sunfish, Numerous Chub
July 3 - Stoneycreek River, 6 Brook Trout, 2 Yellow Perch, more rainbow trout than I could count
July 8 - Local Pond, 7 Bluegill, 5 Pumpkinseed Sunfish
July 17 - Tulpehocken Creek, 6 Rainbow Trout, 2 Brown Trout, 1 Rock Bass
July 21 - Local Pond, 5 Bluegill, 2 Pumpkinseed Sunfish, 1 Largemouth Bass
July 29 - Perkiomen Creek, 1 Bluegill, 1 Green Sunfish, 1 Smallmouth Bass, Numerous Redbreast Sunfish
Aug 1 - Local Pond, 15 Bluegill, 4 Pumpkinseed Sunfish
Aug 2 - Perkiomen Creek, 1 Redbreast Sunfish
Aug 22 - Greenlane Reservior, 2 Pumpkinseen Sunfish, 1 Largemouth Bass, 2 Carp
Sep 7- Tulpehocken Creek, 5 Rainbow Trout, 2 Brown Trout, 1 Rock Bass, 1 Rebbreast Sunfish, 1 Smallmouth Bass
Sep 17 - Skippack Creek, Numerous Rock Bass and Redbreast Sunfish
Sep 18 - Skippack Creek, Smallmouth Bass, Numerous Redbreast Sunfish
Sep 23 - Skippack Creek, 1 sucker, 1 Redbreast Sunfish
Sep 24 - Skippack Creek, 2 Carp
Oct 17 - Tulpehocken Creek, 1 Brown Trout, 2 Rainbow Trout
Oct 27 - Local Pond, 20 Bluegill
Nov 4 - Valley Creek, 12 Brown Trout
Nov 6 - Pickering Creek, 1 Redbreast Sunfish, 1 Bluegill, 2 Smallmouth Bass, 1 Sucker