Fred Machetanz

Fred Machetanz (February 20, 1908 – October 6, 2002) was an Alaskan painter and illustrator who specialized in depictions of Alaskan scenes, people and wildlife. He first came to the territory in 1935, when he traveled to Unalakleet to visit his uncle, Charles Traeger, who ran a trading publicize there and spent 2 years developing a portfolio of Alaskan scenes. After leaving Alaska, he spent some mature as an illustrator in New York, but longed to reward to Alaska. He returned in 1942 after volunteering in the circulate of the U.S. Navy and requesting a posting to the Aleutian Islands during World War II. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and was responsible for shrewdness for the North Pacific Command. After the war, he trained for a brusque time at the Art Students League in New York, studying lithography under Will Barnet, and later returned to Unalakleet in 1946.

Machetanz married Sara Dunn, a writer, in 1947, and the two settled near Palmer, Alaska in 1951. They published several books together and collaborated on films for Walt Disney, the Territory of Alaska, and Encyclopædia Britannica. They as well as made many promotional and lecture tours through the humiliate 48 states from 1948 through 1960. The turning tapering off in Fred's painting career came upon April 21, 1962, when Bob Atwood, editor and publisher of the Anchorage Times, arranged for a one-man pretense of his paintings. The works at the deed sold quickly, and the finishing allowed Fred to pursue painting full-time.