Douglas Olmsted Freeman
Sculptor
Douglas Olmsted Freeman grew up in Minnesota, the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” As a child he discovered clay in the lakebeds near his home. He would gather it, shape small sculptures, let them dry in the sun, and return them to the water.
It was an early introduction to a material that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Freeman originally went to Luther College in Iowa to study psychology. During his sophomore year he attended a lecture by Bauhaus master potter Marguerite Wildenhain. Watching her work with clay sparked something unexpected. After the lecture he ran to the art department to sign up for a pottery class—but all the pottery classes were already full.
The only class still open was sculpture.
That class was taught by Dean Schwarz. On the first day he read aloud Rodin’s Testament, Auguste Rodin’s reflections on the life of an artist.
Hearing those words changed the direction of Freeman’s life. He switched his major to art and began thinking seriously about becoming a sculptor.
It also introduced him to an idea that would shape his path: learning from a master.
Two weeks after graduating from Luther College in 1975, Freeman began working with master sculptor Mustafa Naguib at the Naguib School of Sculpture in Indiana.
For two years and three months he worked under the eye of Naguib seven days a week, modeling life-size figures and studying classical sculptural techniques.
Freeman opened his own studio in Carver, MN in 1978.
The following year he returned to study with Marguerite Wildenhain at her Pond Farm workshop in Guerneville, California, reinforcing the tradition of learning directly from master artists.
In 1982, after completing his first commissioned figurative sculpture, Freeman embarked on a seven-month trip around the world. His travels took him from Madison and New York City to London and Perry Green, where he visited the studio of Henry Moore. There he was struck by Moore’s maquette studio, where small models served as the starting point for larger sculptural exploration.
The journey continued through Paris, Florence, Pietrasanta, Athens, and Cairo, before moving on to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and finally returning to the United States through Los Angeles before arriving back in Minneapolis.
Along the way Freeman visited the studio of Italian sculptor Eduardo Alfieri. Alfieri belonged to the same sculptural lineage that had shaped Naguib’s training, and the visit felt immediately familiar—“like visiting a grandfather,” Freeman later recalled.
Upon returning to Minnesota in 1982, Freeman established his studio in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis.
Around this time Freeman began thinking more deeply about how sculpture exists in the world beyond the studio. His mother’s maiden name is Olmsted, and the family is distantly related to Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park in New York. That connection sparked his curiosity about landscape and how people move through space.
Freeman studied landscape architecture at the University of Minnesota in 1983 and 1984, expanding how he thought about sculpture in relation to the site.
The influence proved transformative.
Freeman began imagining sculpture as part of an environment—works that interact with the site and how people move through a space.
Public art projects are inherently collaborative. Freeman works closely with landscape architects, engineers, planners, and fabricators to bring large-scale installations to life.
Many of these works have become landmarks—places where children play, people gather, and communities create shared memories.
For Freeman, the goal of public art has always been simple:
to create places for people
Selected Clients & Commissions
Culver City, California
The Lion’s Fountain
Duluth Public Arts Commission
Canal Park - On the shores of Lake Superior - Duluth, Minnesota
Fountain of the Wind
Tokyo Metropolitan Government / Akabane District, Tokyo, Japan
Shichifukujin – The Seven Lucky Gods
The Seven Animal Messengers of Akabane
Cincinnati Contemporary Art Museum with Andrew Leicester
Cincinnati, Ohio - Sawyer Point Park
Cincinnati Flying Pigs and Fish Head Shrouds
Saint Paul Department of Parks and Recreation
Upper Landing Park along the Mississippi River in St. Paul Minnesota
Mississippi Guardian Birds
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
Mayo Clinic Dancers
The Minnesota Fire Service Foundation
Minnesota State Capitol Mall , Saint Paul Minnesota
Minnesota Fire Service Memorial
Opus Corporation
MInnesota Landscape Arboretum Chaska, Minnesota
Near the Maze Garden
Family
Fred Wells family
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Chaska, Minnesota
Lilac Gardens
Saint Francis
Decorah Department of Parks and Recreation
On the Dug Road along the Upper Iowa River Decorah, Iowa
Walking with Birds
Friends of The Decorah Fish Hatchery
The Decorah Fish Hatchery - Siewers Spring, Decorah, Iowa
Dream Travelers & Decorah Song