Most, if not all of you have seen – and hopefully purchased – this year’s Sons of Norway Christmas ornament. Continuing in the tradition that started in 2009, our annual ornament is designed by a talented rosemaler in the style of their artistic training. The ornament this year was painted by Karen Van Loan of Apple Valley, Minnesota.
Karen has been painting for the last 26 years but pursued her art seriously starting in 2009 when she took a class from Vesterheim gold medalist Shirley Evenstad through a Community Education course in the area. Having retired from a career in elementary education, Karen now had the time to concentrate on her painting passion. She always had an interest and desire to learn more about the Norwegian & Swedish arts, but it wasn’t until 1998 when she joined Borgund Lodge 1-532 in Rapid City, SD and took her first cultural class in rosemaling that she was truly hooked, continuing to paint with the Black Hills Rosemaling Association.
While she lived in South Dakota, Karen became aware of Vesterheim and the rosemaling classes available. When she and her family had to relocate back to Minnesota in 2009, Karen continued to take classes from American painters, Vesterheim Gold Medalists & Norwegian painters, and later remotely through increasingly online offerings.
She had the chance to study under teachers such as Trudy Peach, Lise Lorentzen, Ken Magnuson, Shirley Evenstad & June Nyberg who taught and encouraged her in the craft.
While Karen comes from a Scandinavian background, she wasn’t surrounded by rosemaling art pieces in her youth since family that came over here from both Norway and Sweden were poor and did not have any of these types of heirlooms to pass down. Instead, her inspiration for the art came from studying old pieces and the instruction and experiences passed down to her from the artists she learned from.
One artist in particular that Karen drew inspiration from on the ornament design was Bergljot Lunde (1924 – 2020), who taught at Vesterheim, but whom Karen never had a chance to study under. The design Karen created is based off an original design done by Lunde who was from Rogaland, Norway. She considers this ornament a tribute to Lunde who instructed, inspired, and influenced many of today’s rosemaling artists, including herself.