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By Mary Carpenter ~ Stoughton Press Staff Writer
The Stoughton Press - Holiday / Winter 2010 edition www.stoughtonpress.com
It’s one of the greatest American stories. They came searching for the proverbial land of opportunity, settling in areas that reminded them of home. They brought renewed energy, a sense of cultural history, a longing for reminders of the homeland, and artistic expression that connected to all three.
For Norwegians coming to America, home became the upper Midwest with its rich soil, ample water, and challenging weather conditions. The little that these immigrants were able to take on the journey often reflected what they treasured in Norway: the intricate needlework called Hardanger, wood carving that brought to life the gnomes and trolls of folklore, and a variety of painting techniques known as rosemaling (or rose embellishment.) This latter painting form adorned the simple cupboards, trunks, drinking bowls, spoons, and decorative plates and boxes used in every-day life. Today rosemaling appears on plates, bowls, boxes, ornaments, jewelry, and a myriad of wooden (and sometimes metal, cloth, or glass) objects that continue to adorn homes and inhabitants throughout the area.
Rosemaling, which now includes the intricate representation of flowers, leaves, scenery, and scrolls, with the addition of lines, teardrops, and other embellishments, continues to thrive in the Midwest, and its popularity has spread throughout the United States. 
Tradition dictates that background color on plates either be natural or a limited spectrum of colors. Usually painted in oils, its decorative colors are also traditional and are mixed with formulas that can be many years old. Design forms are many and represent various areas within Norway: the symmetrical patterns and flowers of the Rogaland region, the sweeping scrolls of the Telemark area, the stylized and layered flowers of the Valdres section, for instance.
Oddly, what started as an immigrant artistic reminder of home has become the renewal of a tradition that has revitalized the art form in Norway. Rosemaling originally flourished in Norway during the 1800’s, but interest in the art form began to die by the end of that century. Pioneers of this resurgence settled in Wisconsin, with Stoughton becoming the focus of the renewed interest.
Per Lysne, born in Norway in 1880, came to Stoughton in 1907 and worked in the wagon factory there, decorating parts of wagons with his rosemaling. When the factory closed during the Depression, he turned to rosemaling to support his family, eventually attracting widespread notice and receiving orders from Marshall Fields. The waiting time for one of his signature plates lengthened to a year.
Other Stoughton artists like Vi Thode and Ethel Kvalheim carried on the tradition, and Stoughton now hosts rosemaling events that attract large crowds of painters and non-painters alike.
What started as a traditional Norwegian art form revived in Wisconsin has inspired others like me to paint. Surrounded by rosemaling in my Madison childhood home and immersed in many of the traditions of my northern-Wisconsin-born father and relatives, I too, remember my heritage and the pride my father took in his ancestry.
I love the traditional foods, decorative clothing, and many art forms brought to the Midwest by the six brothers from Norway who became the American roots of my extended family.
And while I roll lefse in butter and brown sugar for dessert, I still recall my father’s insistence (not too jokingly) that it was Ole and Lena (my grandmother’s name) who inhabited the Garden of Eden. Uff-dah.
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