Marlena nielsen

I believe we are all gifted from birth. Whether it is art, science, math whatever, we are all gifted. Many of us are gifted with so many traits that it can be difficult to choose what we want to spend our life developing. Some of us don’t think about it, we just do it.
I spent many years researching an ancestor who was a stained glass artist who emigrated from England to New Jersey in the 1800’s. When I began the research I fantasized that it would be so exciting to actually find some of his works but I never really counted on it. To make a long story short, not only did we find some of his works we found over 20 church installations including three here in Oregon. Most of the congregations didn’t have a clue who made these windows that gave them such glory in their daily spiritual life, and others thought the windows were made by someone else.
What I learned from this long process was that time has a way of forgetting or distorting the stories of people. I am passionate about using my sculpting to remember greatness in people.
I spent many years researching an ancestor who was a stained glass artist who emigrated from England to New Jersey in the 1800’s. When I began the research I fantasized that it would be so exciting to actually find some of his works but I never really counted on it. To make a long story short, not only did we find some of his works we found over 20 church installations including three here in Oregon. Most of the congregations didn’t have a clue who made these windows that gave them such glory in their daily spiritual life, and others thought the windows were made by someone else.
What I learned from this long process was that time has a way of forgetting or distorting the stories of people. I am passionate about using my sculpting to remember greatness in people.