Funding provided by the HACC Foundation and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

The Rose Lehrman Art Gallery presents

GARDEN’S EDGE

by Alida Fish

Alida Fish

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Alida Fish is known for her hand-altered fine-art photography. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. in galleries and museums such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; The Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington. She has received numerous recognitions for her photographs, including an Individual Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Masters Award from the Delaware State Arts Council. She has been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, and an instructor at Anderson Ranch and the Visual Studies Workshop. She is represented by Alan Klotz Gallery, NYC and Schmidt-Dean Gallery, Cherry Hill, NJ.

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Alida holds an MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology, NY; and a BA from Smith College, Northampton, MA. She is Professor Emerita, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, where she served as Chair of the Media Arts Department and as Interim Dean of the College of Art. Currently, she is a member and past President of the Board of Trustees of Penland School of Craft; and a member of the Board of Governors of The Print Center; she is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Photographic Education.

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For more information on Alida Fish and her work, visit: www.alidafish.com

Artist’s Statement: Garden’s Edge

Gardens are filled with curiosities. The ones I’m most drawn to are populated with fascinating plant selections, shy critters, weathered statuary, and weeds. There always seems to be something or someone there asking to be chosen as part of a photograph.

For this exhibition, I looked through forty years of work and organized a series of images drawn from both real and imagined gardens. The earlier work has a tendency to be more narrative and emotionally charged while the later pieces have a formal quality where description, gesture, and line are primary factors. A perceptive curator once told me she thought that, through my photography, I was trying to create a world of my own invention. I think she was right.

Central to the way I approach photography is the desire to have a hands-on interaction with the image set-up and print process. I alter images both before and after they are photographed. I love to alter the surface of a print through hand painting, collage, and drawing. I don’t think I’ve ever met a photographic process I didn’t like. Among the photographs shown here, you can find chemical color prints, silver prints, tintype, and inkjet prints along with oil paint, encaustic, chromoskedeisic toning, mica coated and collaged rice papers, and oxidized aluminum.

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Stressed Flowers: Easter Lily

1983

20 x16 inches

Ektacolor Print

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Stressed Flowers: Antherium

1984

20 x16 inches

Ektacolor Print

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Stressed Flowers: Peonies

1984

20 x16 inches

Ektacolor Print

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Good Life Bay

2003

20 x 16 inches

Silver Print + Chromoskedeisic Toning

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Blown Tulips

2004

20 x 16 inches

Silver Print + Chromoskedeisic Toning

Three Lilies

2004

20 x 16 inches

Silver Print + Chromoskedeisic Toning

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Pigeon Point Datura

2003

20 x 16 inches

Silver Print + Chromoskedeisic Toning

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Bartram’s Garden Magnolia

2004

20 x 16 inches

Silver Print + Chromoskedeisic Toning

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Junkyard Jacks

2004

20 x 16 inches

Silver Print + Chromoskedeisic Toning

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Beetle with Nautilus

1986

16 x 20 inches

Silver Print + Hand Painting

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Tiny Bird

1992

20 x 16 Inches

Silver Print + Hand Painting

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Snow Bird

1993

16 x 20 inches

Ektacolor Print + Hand Painting

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Owl and Song Bird

1993

16 x 20 inches

Ektacolor Print + Hand Painting

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Red Lurker Bug

1994

20 x 16 inches

Ektacolor Print + Hand Painting

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Blue Egg’s Nest

1993

16 x 20 inches

Ektacolor Print + Hand Painting

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Orange Frogs

1994

16 x 20 inches

Ektacolor Print + Hand Painting

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Sonnenberg Gardens:

Urn Face

1976

16 x 20 inches

Silver Print + Hand Tinting

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Walking with Pygmalion: Dancers

1998

20 x 16 inches

Silver Print + Chromoskedeisic Toning

from Digitally Altered Negative

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Walking with Pygmalion: Diana

1998

20 x 16 inches

Silver Print + Chromoskedeisic Toning

from Digitally Altered Negative

Walking with Pygmalion: Charles

1998

20 x 16 inches

Silver Print + Chromoskedeisic Toning

from Digitally Altered Negative

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Tissue: Lily

2013

13 x 11 inches

Photo Transfer on Rice Paper

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Tissue: Cone Flower

2013

13 x 11 inches

Photo Transfer on Rice Paper

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Tissue: Rose

2013

13 x 11 inches

Photo Transfer on Rice Paper

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Floating Flower

2005

10 x 8 inches

Tintype

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Volunteers: Penland Seed Pod

2018

10 x 8 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Maple Tree

2016

10 x 8 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Dandelion Seeds

2016

10 x 8 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Lace Leaf

2017

10 x 8 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Winged Maple Seed

2016

10 x 8 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Milkweed Seed

2017

10 x 8 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Collection #1

2020

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Purple Grass

2018

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Penland Pampas

2017

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Dancing Grass

2019

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Seed Burst

2017

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Yellow Nut Sedge

2017

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Triangle Grass

2017

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Wisteria

2017

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Lupin

2017

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Southlands

2019

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Mother-in-Law Leaves

2019

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Cherry Blossoms

2019

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Crocus

2019

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum

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Volunteers: Vetch

2019

24 x 20 inches

Photo Transfer on Oxidized Aluminum