Art Talk with Daniel Joseph Watkins

Join Freak Power curator Daniel Joseph Watkins as he shares stories of Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson's life, work, and 1970 campaign for Pitkin County sheriff.

Freak Power tells the story of Thompson's plan to become sheriff, take control of Aspen and transform it from a conservative mining town into a mecca for artists, rebels and activists. Through original print material from the campaign, photographs and political art, Freak Power chronicles a little known period in Hunter S Thompson's life, a period when he wrote prolifically about politics, the environment, drugs, and American values. As the conservatives and Thompson led liberals battled it out, the campaign became fraught with violence, accusations and moments of absurdity that bordered on fiction. As weird a tale as Thompson ever wrote, his own forays into politics may have been his wittiest and wisest escapade of all.

Image: Freak Power exhibition, courtesy of Fat City Gallery.