Nocturnus

Using wood and steel, Freeland constructs a commanding totem whose Latin title, Nocturnus, conjures the night. Originally trained as a painter, the artist gradually shifted toward three-dimensional wall constructions and freestanding sculpture. He drew inspiration from utilitarian objects encountered in the Philadelphia area and in Ireland, where he lived part-time beginning in 1992. His abstracted forms—echoing farming tools, windmills, boats, and cottages—express his engagement with both local and transatlantic landscapes. 

After studying at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, Freeland attended Hans Hofmann’s celebrated summer school in Provincetown in 1957. From 1969 to 1990, he taught at Moore College of Art and Design. In 1992, he began dividing his time between Pennsylvania and Ireland, and for nearly a decade worked to reclaim an abandoned quarry in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where he designed and built a home and studio. 

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