Milan Village Arts School | About the Teachers

about the teachers

Silver & Metals

Kim Bakken-Parr began her career as a high school chemistry teacher who loved to work in the lab. Her love of chemistry and teaching has continued as she shares her passion for the creative medium of Precious Metal Clay jewelry. Her husband, Lee Parr, has been involved in arts and crafts for years and they make a great teaching team. They are active in the White Bear Center for the Arts.

Tom Johnson grew up in western Minnesota and upon retirement began to do silversmithing as a hobby when he and wife Dorothy began to spend winters in Arizona. He is very involved in teaching adult silversmithing classes in Sun City and has taught for many years, drawing upon
the skills and techniques of the Native Americans of that area. Not only will you come away from Tom’s classes with new abilities, but you will also have an enthusiasm for silver jewelry making and the beauty of sterling silver.

Gene Sandau, Madison, MN, has over 28 years of welding experience, 23 years of Blacksmith Arts, mostly self-taught with the assistance and advice from some “old-timers.” Gene’s work is placed at various homes and business places throughout western Minnesota, as well as the Twin Cities, Northern Minnesota, and beyond. Gene encourages questions.

Sandy Thompson of Montevideo, MN has found a passion for silversmithing in her retirement and loves to share her skills and tips to work with metals. Beginning her interest at the Milan Village Arts School, she has been involved with silver classes and programming for over 10 years. She also spends winters in Sun City, Arizona, where she continues to learn new techniques and hone her skills among seasoned artisans in her Silver Club. Copper has recently become a very popular metal and this is the first year Sandy will teach with this appealing metal with its unique characteristics. Join her for an enthusiastic day of learning and enjoyment.

Scandinavian

Clarice Dieter was inspired by her interest in her Norwegian heritage to study rosemaling and has continued to pursue that interest as both a student and teacher of rosemaling and Hardanger. Clarice is active in the Prairie Renaissance Cultural Alliance in Morris and lives in Chokio.

Bill Jaeger, Anoka, has been figure carving in the Scandinavian traditional style since 1992. The last six years he has taught regularly at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis as well as other carving venues. A draftsman by trade, Bill has since taken many folk arts and craft courses here and in Sweden. Bill won the 2009 Gold Medal for wood carving at the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, Iowa and demonstrated carving at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ Nordic oil painting exhibition.

Karen Jenson of Milan, Minnesota has taught classes all over the United States for more than 30 years. Her gallery displays include the Vesterheim Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City, and the Folk Museum at Oslo, Norway. Her classes draw students from across the United States and her reputation as a rosemaler is known nationally.

Norma Refsal became very interested and familiar with many of the Scandinavian folk arts while living with her family in Norway. She currently does work in metal, leather and wood, and her inspiration is closely tied to the Nordic folk art traditions. She lives in Decorah, Iowa with her husband, Harley, and they work together in their home studio.

Jon Roisen started making Norwegian knives with Gene Tokheim in 1995. Since then he’s fine tuned his knife making skills to become a Gold Medal winner at the Vesterheim. Jon has assisted Gene in teaching at MVAS for over 10 years and needs no introduction to returning Norwegian Knife Making students. Jon and his wife Sue own the Lac qui Parle Valley Vineyard and are board members of MVAS.

Gene Tokheim of Dawson, Minnesota has an arts degree from SSU. He has taught for over 20 years in the United States and in Norway. His work has been exhibited in shows at the University of Minnesota, the Folk Art Museum in New York City and the Hedmark Museum in Hammer, Norway. He has won the Gold Medal in knife making at the Vesterheim Museum. He is an accomplished potter, silversmith, and long-time supporter of the Milan Village Arts School.

Woodworking

Tom Dengler has been doing green woodworking and traditional crafts for almost twenty years. He regularly demonstrates at several historic sites, Nordicfest, The woodenboat festival in Grand Marais and several other events throughout the year. "I never buy material for green
woodworking, it's everywhere."

Marty Leenhouts is a trained educator with over 25 years of chip carving experience. As the owner of My Chip Carving (www.MyChipCarving.com), Marty seeks to inspire, instruct, and equip chip carvers all over the world. The beauty and wonder that first drew Marty into this style of carving still pulls on him today. It is his desire to pass on the joy of chip carving to as many other people as possible. Marty was born and raised in Wisconsin and currently lives in south central Minnesota. He and his wife also own and operate Red Barn Retreats (www.RedBarnRetreats.com), where he teaches chip carving classes and quilters, scrapbookers, family groups, weddings, and others gather for various retreat events.

Fred Livesay discovered his fondness for woodworking at age 10 and has trained as a wheelwright and carriage builder, and later went on to study Scandinavian folk art and decorative arts. Fred is a carpenter who still finds time to build and repair fine furniture, carve spoons, turn bowls, weave baskets...Fred teaches at North House Folk School and at the American Swedish Institute.

Dale Pederson has been working with timber framing for over 20 years and, aside from his own workshop, has constructed several timberframe homes and structures throughout western Minnesota. Dale also creates willow furniture with his wife Jo, which can be viewed at his website www.stonyrunwoods.com.

Harley Refsal has taught Scandinavian-style figure carving throughout the U.S. as well as in Norway, Sweden and Iceland. A professor of Scandinavian Folk Art at Luther College in Decorah, Harley regularly demonstrates and gives presentations on Norwegian folk art and traditions, and has authored several books and numerous articles on Scandinavian figure carving.

Hans Sandom, born in Norway but now residing in Minnetonka, Minnesota, is a gifted wood carver. Hans has over 37 years of carving experience in Acanthus and Rococo styles and specializes in furniture. Hans has won the Gold Medal in National Competition for Excellence at
the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, IA and received first prize in acanthus carving from the International Wood Carvers’ Congress in Davenport IA. He was commissioned to carve a memorial box to King Olav V which was presented to King Harald V.

Jim Sannerud is a professional woodturner with his studio in St. Paul, MN, overlooking the Minnesota River. With a background of 25 years woodworking experience, Jim “turned” to the lathe 6 years ago to follow his passion and creativity. He has shown and sold his turnings nationally and shares his “infectious enthusiasm” for woodturning with a wide variety of students - from children in Ukraine to community education classes in St. Paul. He has studied
with a number of professional turners and carvers but recently gained inspiration while studying in Sweden with Willie and Jogge Sundquist. Jim’s work is a unique blend of craft using the modern lathe while holding onto the traditional sloyd handwork and techniques.

Jon Strom has a degree in art education form Southwest State University. Sculpture is his main interest but has made a living building log homes for over 25 years, He has taught classes in spoon carving, kitchen utensils and other green woodworking projects, in MN. WIS. and Canada. Growing up on a farm in Worthington, he yearned for the north woods and eventually moved there, built a solar, sod coverd log home. Traditional Swedish carving techniques were learned from friends and workshops with Jogge Sundqvist from Sweden. Jon now lives in Davison, MI.

Painting, Sculpture & Framing

Lisa Arnold is a mosiacist living in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis. In her home studio she recycles windows, ceramics and glass, combining them with other new found objects to crerate one-of-a-kind works of art. She draws inspiration from her materials, the beauty of nature and other various art forms. Often working organically, Lisa focuses on color, light and shape. For the last 20 years she has taught many courses: mosiac art, performance art, nature art, theatre, slam poetry, puppetry, dramaturgy, film studies, storytelling, installation art and art theory. Lisa is on the Minnesota and North Dakota State Art’s Board’s Rosters of Artists in Education, is a member of the Minnesota Mosiac Guild and Society of American Mosiac Artists

Jill Blom has a BA in art education. She taught elementary art in the Milan Elementary school, has been an artist in residence working with elementary students, and worked with the community to put the history of Milan in mural form in downtown Milan. She is now a freelance
artist in the Milan area and has taught classes for the MVAS for many years.

Art Norby began his career in 1976, and over the last 34 years has created more than 500 sculptures, which can be found in civic, corporate and private collections. For the last ten years he has divided his time between sculpture and painting in oils. He has garnered recognition for his work as a sculptor even though his paintings have evolved alongside this work. Painting proved to be the creative outlet for him to relax when he found himself dealing with the stress of many sculpture commissions and deadlines. Over his career he has owned and managed eight fine art galleries and has taught sculpture and painting workshops in numerous locations.

Brian Wolf began picture framing as a part time job as a student at Iowa State University. In his shop he developed the decorative matting techniques that he has been teaching to other picture framers around the world since 1979. In 2002 Brian started work with Wizard International where he works with the computerized mat cutter and continues to contribute articles on framing design to industry publications.

Functional Arts & Fibers

Maureen Hark lives with her family on a small urban farm in St. Paul, MN. Formally a textile conservator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, she now runs Blue House Garlic. Maureen has been baking her whole life.

Robin Moore lives in Lac qui Parle County were she grows organic flowers and is a practicing blacksmith. She learned to tie brooms from North House Folk School instructor Dennis Chicolte and sells her wares at billy maple trees on Main Street, Milan.

Jon Roisen started making Norwegian knives with Gene Tokheim in 1995. Since then he’s fine-tuned his knife making skills to become a Gold Medal winner at the Vesterheim Museum. Jon has assisted Gene in teaching at MVAS for over 10 years; and needs no introduction to returning Norwegian Knife Making students. Jon and his wife Sue own the Lac qui Parle Valley Vineyard and are board members of MVAS.

Celeste Suter. Creative expression is part of fiber artist Celeste Suter’s life objective. The colors, textures and promise of endless combinations of fibers to create her works of art brings her heart joy. Celeste designs knitting and crochet patterns. She also spins yarn, is a dyer, weaver and felter, and enjoys locker hooking and needle tatting. She utilizes a wide range of fibers including wool, alpaca, llama, silk, camel, bamboo and soy silks, and mohair and wool & cotton fabrics. So that she could share her joy of fiber with others, she opened a studio in Montevideo in Fall 2007.