Don Kaiser, Stephen Ziegler, and the ART Angle of Fly Fishing
by Ron P. Swegman

Fly fishing is an art form as much as it is an outdoor sport. Open almost any book of angling and colorful illustrations will rise to the eye. From the mythic Dame Juliana Berners’ classic, Treatise on Fishing with an Angle, through Dr. Edgar Burke’s fly patterns in Ray Bergman’s Trout, to contemporary books brought out by publishers such as Frank Amato Publications, the practical how-to lore of the sport has been always intertwined with literary, and visual, Art with a capital A.

Don Kaiser, SPEEDKILLSSTOP, 2005, digital print, 48x36 inches

Two fly fishers who have explored the artistic side of the sport are Don Kaiser and Stephen Ziegler. These two Pennsylvania residents have practiced the visual representation of the fishing game as carefully and consistently as their fly tying, casting, and catch-and-release. Their efforts were recently acknowledged by the formal art world. Philadelphia’s Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial hosted the group show -- The Fly at Fleisher: modest and monumental object -- which displayed the pair’s fly tying, painting, and digital conceptual photography.

An exhibition of angling art in a major American city is not as odd a pairing as it might seem on the surface. Philadelphia has become something of an urban angler’s paradise, especially for those who appreciate art. James Prosek had a one-man show of his fishing watercolors at the city’s Fleisher Ollman Gallery during the spring of 2005, and the illustrated book, Philadelphia on the Fly, was published in the autumn of 2005. These events set up the stage well for The Fly at Fleisher.

What makes this exhibition exceptional is the fact that the Fleisher has been, since 1898, an organization dedicated to art education rather than art commerce. Nestled near the hub of the city’s historic Italian Market district, the Fleisher year-round hosts numerous classes in photography, ceramics, and other arts, all of which are held within the inspiring setting of a former Romanesque-revival church and a recently-renovated Center for Works on Paper, which was the space that showcased The Fly at Fleisher.

The exhibition came together like the plot of a classic fish story. The artists, Kaiser and Ziegler, followed parallel artistic and fly fishing lines that eventually intersected during their meetings and activities as members of The Anglers’ Club of Philadelphia. The fraternity of that organization fostered first friendship in fishing, next collaboration in art.

The curator of the exhibition was the Fleisher’s Warren Angle. His last name seems appropriate, given the subject matter of the exhibition, but Angle himself admits that he does not angle. He was trained as a ceramicist and sculpture, and it was his presence in the art world of the Mid-Atlantic States that brought him into contact with Ziegler. They learned they were relative neighbors, geographically speaking, and as their friendship grew, so did Angle’s appreciation of fly fishing’s artistic side. Kaiser entered Angle’s orbit in a similar way, and soon it became apparent to all involved that an exhibition of angling art could fly.

Kaiser, who works for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, expresses his vision in a variety of mediums. In one he makes metaphorical, frequently humorous, fly pattern still life paintings using paint on panel. One example of this side of work is a classic “nude” -- a single bare hook -- one rendered nearly a foot in length with classical modeling of light and shade. He takes this concept a step further within the digital medium, taking fly patterns, using Photoshop to morph these into monumental size, and then placing these within natural outdoor environments. In one instance he has placed several giant, evenly-spaced, saltwater streamers along a beach, hook eyes to the sky. The effect is that of a line of surf casters trying their luck for striped bass. The sense of humor is immediately obvious, and just below the surface is the conceptual “high art” -- turning the fly into the fly fisher; a juxtaposition that inspires rumination and introspection -- a key signature of successful artwork.

Stephen Ziegler, a practicing architect (in the tradition of the late Dr. Ernest Schwiebert), grew up in the spring creek region of Central Pennsylvania, and he learned the sport along such famed waters as Spring Creek and the Yellow Breeches. This classical background is reflected in his art, which is more traditional in form -- streamscape and beachscape scenes done in watercolors -- but his unique point of view takes this form to a new level. Many of his works are assemblages that document an entire angling experience. He will, for example, incorporate a notebook, a fly pattern, and a sketch into a single work of art. In one piece from the Fleisher exhibition, he encapsulated a hand-tied Muddler Minnow with the watercolor of a pebbled streambed, which he arranged together inside a clear top box, creating a kind of fly fisher’s diorama. The resulting three-dimensional object works as a painting and a sculpture; a memory of a good day’s fishing past.

The pairing of Kaiser and Ziegler was a natural success. The exhibition ran from mid-February to mid-April of this year, and also featured a fly tying and casting workshop and a book signing. The well-attended show received good reviews from fishers and non-fishers alike, and provided viewers an innovative urban angle on the sport, and Art, of fly fishing.

Ron P. Swegman is the author of Philadelphia on the Fly: Tales of an Urban Angler. His website is http://www.ronpswegman.com/

 

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