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THE AMERICAN-SCANDIN AVIAN REVIEW 
Paul Fjelde Sculptor 
Pioneers’ Memoriae Tablet in Bronze Erected in Council Bluffs, Iowa, 1917 
seem, much less conducive to artistic inspiration than those which 
nurtured his father in the old country. In childhood, however, lie 
showed that he, of the children, had inherited the artistic strain in his 
father’s soul. He took naturally to drawing, then tried his hand with 
what poor excuse for clay could be had on the farm, and finally be¬ 
came the fortunate possessor of some real modeling clay. His educa¬ 
tion on the prairie could, of course, in no way prepare him for an artistic 
career, but he visited relatives in Minneapolis and attended for some 
time the art school in that city. Later, the family moved to Valley 
City, where better educational facilities were obtainable. Finally, 
when twenty years old, he became and remained for several years a 
pupil of Lorado Taft in Chicago, acquiring in his studio the technical 
skill and the artistic conscience which have found expression in his 
work. 
However, it was while still a farmer boy and when only fifteen 
years old that Paul Fjelde conceived and executed his first and so far 
practically his only venture in purely imaginative art. Others have 
painted the prairies in words and colors; to young Fjelde belongs the 
(distinction of having tried to picture the winds with the modeling 
