Steve Gordon stands at the intersection of art, education and community activism. An Anchorage-based painter, Gordon first studied biology at Dartmouth College and later in fine arts at the University of Iowa where he earned his M.F.A. in 1984. After graduation, he moved north, drawn by the scale and light of the Last Frontier. What followed is a career defined by painterly realism: large-scale oil works that plunge viewers into Reed Lakes’ turquoise depths, Halibut Cove’s shifting tides and the wind-scoured ridges above Bishop’s Beach. Today his paintings hang in public institutions, corporate headquarters and private homes across Alaska and beyond, including a permanent spot in the UAA/APU Consortium Library.

Yet Gordon’s influence extends far beyond the studio wall. As an adjunct professor at both UAA and Alaska Pacific University, he has mentored generations of artists to ask creative questions and serve the community. His curricula rarely end with a critique; they spill into murals, installations and exhibitions that tackle urgent social issues. In “Unseen — Seen,” Gordon’s beginning-painting students collaborated with residents of the Bean’s Café shelter to create compassionate, large-format portraits of Anchorage’s unhoused population, resulting in works that reveal resilience where many see only hardship. Another collaborative effort, the ACEs Mural Project, paired student and community artists with individuals in recovery to visualize life stories shaped by adverse childhood experiences and addiction. Seven towering murals painted, discussed and exhibited at the Nave in Spenard became a hopeful counter-narrative to isolation and stigma.

Gordon’s own philosophy is rooted in the spiritual charge he feels while moving through nature. Color, pattern and movement become both subject and metaphor, inviting viewers to inhabit a precise moment of Alaska’s vastness. Still, he believes the purpose of art reaches beyond celebration of place. “Art inspires change,” he says, “by shining a spotlight on the issues and offering hope.” Whether guiding teens in summer workshops, leading residencies in rural communities or lending his brush to public-health campaigns, Gordon wields art as a catalyst for dialogue — about opioid misuse, homelessness, refugee crises and the quiet beauty that persists despite them.

In the classroom, Gordon’s lessons teach students to merge studio practice with civic engagement. In the wider community, his murals and landscapes remind Alaskans of both the grandeur outside their door and the humanity across their street.