Gary Freeburg’s talk will be about living and working alone as an artist in the wilderness of Alaska’s volcanic regions: preparation (research), experiences and significance of creating artwork that reflects a post-eruption landscape.
After serving in Vietnam in the U.S. Navy, Freeburg received three degrees in photography: his B.F.A. and M.A. from Minnesota State University at Mankato in 1974 and 1977 and his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa in 1978. He lived and worked in Alaska for twenty-five years and served as a professor of art at the University of Alaska's Kenai Peninsula College, where he directed the art program and served as the curator in the campus art gallery that now bears his name. He is currently a professor of art at James Madison University.
Freeburg has worked with renowned photographers and educators, such as Ansel Adams, Oliver Gagliani, and John Schultz, and his photographs and drawings have been exhibited nationally and in several publications including his recent book, The Valley of 10,000 Smokes: Revisiting the Alaskan Sublime, a publication by George F. Thompson Publishing, 2012.
He was recognized by the Getty Center for Education in the Arts for his art advocacy work in Alaska and Washington, DC. A documentary film by George C. Johnson, An Artist's Journey to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes: The Photography of Gary Freeburg, serves as a capstone to Freeburg's photographic work in the wilderness of Alaska.
