In Pleasant Places

Red oak, 24"x36"x2" 1977 and 2020

Originally done in 1977 for the 40th anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Meyer of Sheboygan, WI
Retaining the original design, the piece was redone in 2020, updating the circular text for readability and refinishing the oiled oak.
The text is from Psalm 16, taken from the headstone of Rev. Gustav Meyer, Vincent's father, in the Sheboygan Lutheran cemetery.

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Shelley: To a Skylark

To a Skylark 2014 cherry,12"x84" collection of the artist, Anoka MN With deep gratitude to fellow choral singer and St. Olaf friend Eldri Wittkamper.. We just wanted to stop by and see the house where Eldri's relative lived, one of the Roe family who taught voice at St. Olaf. We knocked on the door, and it turns out the house was occupied by the mayor of Northfield, who invited us in. My jaw dropped when I saw it--the style was unmistakeable--it was a Flaten work surrounding the mantelpiece at the fireplace. The text is a selection from Percy Bysshe Shelley, "To a Skylark": Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. Since we couldn't guarantee access to the house in the future, it was a stroke of luck that Eldri had a rubbing of the work, an exact copy. From the rubbing, I was able to reproduce the carving exactly as Arnold did it. I g...

Servants, 2nd ed.

Lord, You Have Called Your Servants 2020 Oiled white birch, 32"x36"x2" St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Bloomington MN This is another edition of a well-known and well-loved prayer. I have finished seven or eight versions of this in walnut, in a horizontal layout; this is the first in 'paragraph' format, with corresponding icon miniatures on the side. The icons, from top down: sun/clouds of creation, the cross, shock of wheat, dotted eighth note of music, the star, the acorn seed, and the sprout of new growth.

Newborn Stars...

Newborn Stars 2013, 2014 walnut, 30"x60" collection Zion Lutheran Church, Hopkins MN I have gone through this process many times before--finding a text in a piece of choral music that is the source material for work in wood. As a choral singer, it takes some time to learn new music--notes, intervals, phrasing, tempo--and then at some unexpected time, a phrase or verse hits like the proverbial ton of bricks. Sometimes there are tears, often I just can't sing for a while when the profoundness of the text finally hits home. This text is one of those. It's a hymn text written by writer/theologian/musician Dr. Carl Daw, and the hymn is " As Newborn Stars Were Stirred to Song." It was the perfect metaphor, especially the last verse-- the symbolism of the redeeming Christ set into musical terminology that just struck me... and a perfect choice to change the text into wood. An example of 'interchange', a favorite technique that I can onl...

Chasing Arnold Flaten

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