Lisa A. Frank

"As an observer of nature, I am repeatedly stopped in my tracks to wonder, "How in the world did this happen?" My intention is to capture my wonderment and love for the mysteries of natural environments in a way that forms connections for viewers."

Lisa A. Frank is a Sony Alpha+ photographer and a MacDowell Colony fellow in photography. She holds an MFA in Design Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she has taught computer generated textile design and digital photography as an adjunct professor. She has a BS in Art from the UW and a graduate certificate from the Yale School of Drama in scenic painting.

Lisa was chosen to be a Senior Research Fellow at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and was the first artist/collaborator to be given this distinction. With the Living Environments Lab at UW-Madison and the Visualization Lab at the U of I, Lisa was an early developer of virtual reality content used as an expressive art medium. In 2019, commissioned by Montefiore Hospital in NY, she headed a team that developed a virtual reality app that could be used as a pain reduction tool for children.

Lisa has an extensive professional background in New York City where she designed textiles, wallpaper, and innovative surface treatments for residential and commercial interior projects. She painted scenery for the Metropolitan Opera, feature films, and Broadway productions as a member of the United Scenic Artists union. Around the turn of the century she bought her first Apple computer, a scanner, and a digital camera. She then began to invent a new, expressive medium for herself. She now has a large body of nature-themed photographic artwork that has been exhibited in galleries and sold as limited edition fine art prints. Recently she was awarded a Sony Alpha+ Female grant that supported her "Captive Splendor" portfolio of work.

Lisa’s studio and home are located in the driftless area of rural Wisconsin where she is establishing several acres of pollinator habitat and a prolific vegetable garden. She lives with her partner and a menagerie of wild and domesticated animals.