Written by Regina Ender
Pursuing a career as an artist takes immense passion and perseverance, and it’s clear Joshua Freeman has both. Freeman has been an aspiring artist for over a decade while also cultivating the next generation of artists for the past six years as a high school teacher. By pursuing his Master of Fine Arts from APU, he hopes to take the next step in his journey to continually create and teach with excellence.
Freeman’s speciality is working with clay, which he says perfectly combines his love of engineering, architecture, and art. He discovered his love of Ceramics when he was an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida while taking art classes to accompany his architecture pursuits. He quickly became consumed with making installations and sculptures and changed his major to Fine Arts.
Now, Freeman is helping youth discover their love of art as a teacher of Ceramics and Advanced Placement 3D Design and the Chair of the Art Department at Olympia High School in Orlando, Florida. He has seized opportunities to expose his students to art on a global scale and has led art tours in Italy, France, England, Ireland, and Scotland. In his time as an educator, he has been honored with the Florida’s Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship for three consecutive years. He’s also received the Vivika Otto Heino Ceramics Scholarship for excellence in his craft.
Among his professional credits, Freeman has been personally commissioned for several works, including a 42” x 42” ceramic wall hanging displayed at the AC Hotel Madison Downtown in Madison, Wisconsin. He has also been featured in dozens of exhibitions, most recently the “SoCal MFA Exhibition” in Pomona, “Shared Vision” in Upland, “Chaosmos” in Los Angeles, and “Inspired” in Orlando. Since he has started at APU, his favorite piece he has created was a colorful temporary ceramic fountain that was set up in the courtyard near the Duke Lobby and was designed to disintegrate over a few hours. On top of seeing his hard work come to fruition, he said the experience was extra special because his wife and children were there to support him when he presented it.
As a Christian, Freeman said his art is inspired and driven by his faith. His time as a student at APU has provided a meaningful combination of artistic and spiritual support he said he couldn’t have found doing a master’s program anywhere else. The opportunity to be strengthened as an artist by professors who give him personalized feedback while also taking opportunities to pray with him have proven invaluable, he said.
Words of Wisdom: “Clay is one of life’s best role models: It waits patient to be formed, yields to its Creator, can be remade again and again, and can survive intensely hot situations.”
