Fred Padula

Education: BA in Music; MA in Art.

Teaching Positions: University of California; University of Minnesota; San Francisco Art Institute; San Francisco State University.

Grants: American Film Institute

Awards: SF Int'l Film Festival; Chicago Film Festival; NY Film Festival; Popoli Ethnographic Festival, Italy; Festival International du Film D'Adventure Vecue, France; Filmfestival Internazionale Montagna Esplorazione, Italy; Festival Internationale du Film Alpine, Switzerland; International Bergfilme Munchen, Germany; Banff Festival of Mountain Films, Canada; Telluride Film Festival.

Collections: George Eastman House; Oakland Museum; Crocker Art Gallery; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and State of California.

One Man Shows: SF Museum of Modern Art; DeYoung Museum, SF; George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Museum of Modern Art, NY; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Pacific Film Archive; Middleburry College, VT; Washington State University, Pulman; San Fernando Valley State University, CA; BBC-TV, London; University of Wisconsin, Madison; Banff Center for the Arts, Canada; Walker Art Center; SF Int'l Airport.

Personal Statement: After receiving a BA in music, I began to work in abstract color photography. In 1964 I became interested in filmmaking and continue to work in this media. During the 1970s I returned to music composition (electronic) as an outgrowth of film soundtracks. Also during the '70s, I became infatuated with flying small airplanes and from this new perspective began making aerial photographs.

Symbols and metaphors that manifest from human thought processes and their resulting actions are the subject of my work. These enigmatic symbols, created by man or nature, and the universal mystery they evoke is what lures me to explore them.