Nordic Heritage Museum

4/12/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Zig markers

Although I’m married to a guy with Norwegian ancestry, I’m chagrined to say that I know very little about Nordic history, tradition or culture. I took a tiny step to correct that today by visiting the Nordic Heritage Museum, where Carleen, Kate, Peggy and I decided to meet for a sketch gathering. According to its website, “since its founding in 1980, the Nordic Heritage Museum is the only museum in the United States to honor the legacy of immigrants from the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.”

 

Most of my time there was spent wandering through the many exhibits on the three floors, so I didn’t leave much time for sketching. My first sketch was of a bust of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865 – 1957), sculpted by August Werner. Then in the few minutes before we were planning to meet, I sketched a duck painted with rosemaling by Marilyn Hansen, who 

4/12/13 Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink, Zig markers 

teaches the decorative painting folk art at the museum. The duck was in a glass case filled with many more examples of Hansen’s work.

 

As we were getting ready to share our sketches, Carleen and I noticed some architectural renderings on the wall for the new Nordic Heritage Museum building to be built close to Salmon Bay. The name on the architectural drawings? Seattle Urban Sketcher and architect Stephanie Bower!



Photo by Carleen Zimmerman