Epic Return of the Sandhill Cranes, Lisa Frank
Wisconsin artist Lisa Frank has had a widely diverse career in the arts, from working as a scenic artist on Broadway and painting the floral patterns shown behind the elderly couples in the film “When Harry Met Sally” to developing nature-themed virtual reality apps used by hospitals for young patients.
After making her exit from a job making wall coverings at Ralph Lauren — as Frank puts it, “being put out of my misery” — she went out and bought a camera.
“I had this German shorthaired pointer puppy at the time who always needed to be out running,” Frank said. “I developed a habit on our walks of photographing mushrooms and other things in nature, just passing the time with my dog.”
That pastime has become her main career focus. Three works from her latest portfolio “Remnants” featuring sandhill cranes and whooping cranes are part of the exhibition “Lush” at Abel Contemporary Gallery (524 East Main St.) in Stoughton. The exhibit will be on view through April 19.
Her work can also be found at the new Proton Therapy Center at Eastpark Medical Center and at other UW Health facilities, like in the University Hospital main lobby and “F” elevator.
Lisa Frank is a Wisconsin artist and fine art photographer whose work is inspired by nature, particularly sandhill and whooping cranes.
Find her pieces at Abel Contemporary Gallery in Stoughton and UW Health.
A graduate of Yale University and University of Wisconsin-Madison, Frank also took digital art classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. To create her digitally crafted nature collages, Frank takes scenery pictures, makes aesthetic edits in Photoshop, layers her own textile patterns onto the picture and makes that transparent.
Then, she composites cut-outs of other pictures she’s taken of birds, flowers and other animals and plants into the image. She makes any necessary adjustments to light, contrast and even utilizes digital painting tools where necessary to create beautiful, nearly 4-foot-tall works of art.
In recent years, cranes have been Frank’s muse. “I just love them,” she said. “I’ve seen migrations in New Mexico, Florida, Nebraska and various places in Wisconsin.
“Last year, I got to camp in a photo blind on the Platte River during their migration. It was 30 degrees, with no electricity, no plumbing and thousands of cranes. It was deafening and the most glorious, most wonderful life moment. I took close to 8,000 photos.”
Frank recently spoke with the Cap Times about the origins of her love for nature and how her family and past life journeys inspire her art.
You’ve had many different career journeys — in textiles, painting, stage, film and photography — but nature has always been a throughline for you. Where does your love of nature, and especially sandhill cranes, come from?
I grew up in a little farm town in northwestern Illinois and went to Girl Scout camp to pass the time in the summer, eventually becoming a counselor. I got very comfortable living in nature, hiking and learning to identify wildlife. It had a calming effect on my personality. But I wasn’t familiar with cranes until I moved to Madison. I think it was their haunting calls that caught me. It's almost a prehistoric sound.
They are great parents and I’ve really enjoyed watching their nesting habits. And their babies are so damn adorable. It’s hard not to have your heart warmed by them.
Hear Once More, Lisa Frank
It’s clear you have a strong love for your subject matter. I mean, you must in order to be willing to spend so much time compositing these images, which are made up of over 100 layers of digital assets. That’s tedious work.
I have fun with it. I do. There’s something that's so strangely calming about it, because I can really micro-focus, and it makes the world blur away. I'm just in my little pixel world and making myself happy.
Speaking of pixel worlds, virtual reality is something you were working on for a while alongside your photography, creating six VR environments out of your nature photos with the Living Environments Lab for your “<1>:’der’” CAVE at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Did the immersive nature of VR influence the way you composite your complex digital 2D works?
Yes. With the CAVE, people with VR goggles walked into this cube with 8-foot sides and all six sides had images projected on them. Each person had a game controller and were able to move around in those projected environments. There would be a forest on their left and they could move into an egg inside a nest, then there would be a turtle and song birds.
With my 2D work, I want people to feel like they can really move around in it. It’s static and you’re static, but there’s a lot of depth of field and little details here and there all meant to keep your eyes moving around.
What do your parents think of your work that’s so inspired by your childhood and time on stage with your dad?
My mother is my biggest critic. She wishes I would sell greeting cards and will always ask me why I don’t sell them. My dad is a lovely man, he’s in memory care. I was showing him a video of my work process for making “The Epic Return of the Sandhill Crane” and he was really happy to see it but couldn’t come up with the words to express his thoughts.
My parents have been married for 70 years but they don’t live together anymore. My mom is in assisted living and my dad has dementia. It’s very hard on them to spend their last years like this. But it’s also one of the reasons I’m very grateful to be able to share my work with them and so many other people who are in hospitals and don’t get to be outside in nature.
When Dinosaurs were Birds, Lisa Frank
Your work is all over Madison medical facilities, such as the Proton Therapy Center which hosts your piece “When Dinosaurs Were Birds.” Have you gotten to hear from some of the patients?
Yes. It’s one of the most wonderful things about having art in hospitals, like the UWHealth collection. I hear from people who are going through traumatic events who say, “I just got my five year clean slate and I feel like those butterflies in your art.” Bringing the natural world into a place where people can’t temporarily access it is a gift. And it’s a gift I’m thrilled to give.
At the “Lush” exhibition, you are showcasing three works from your portfolio “Remnants.” Tell me about why you chose that title and what makes this collection particularly special to you.
I chose the title partly because there are remnants of textiles and wall coverings in the backgrounds, but also because the whooping cranes and sandhill cranes are having a hard time. With the loss of many wetlands, sandhill cranes are losing their homes and some subspecies are now considered endangered. Meanwhile, the whooping cranes are slowly coming back from being endangered.
This is the first time I have shown work from that portfolio, a lot of which I made while staying with my sister as she was recovering from a bone marrow transplant. The photograph at the Proton Therapy Center is part of this portfolio, too. I’m happy to have it out in the world and hope it lifts the spirits of people going through heavy times.