They belonged to identical twins Arvid Swenson and Aaron Swenson, who were standing in front of her. Their love of Norwegian art drew them to her booth like “bees for honey,” Jenson laughed.
She said, “Hey guys.”
They couldn’t even look at me and smile. Jenson said, recalling their first timid encounter.
It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship, and the beginning of what Jenson now calls “the best years of my life.”
The twins from Rural Flom, Minnesota have become regular visitors to her Milan home.
The Swenson brothers are carpenters and woodworkers in their own right. Like Jenson, Aaron Swenson won a gold medal at the Norwegian-American Westerheim Museum in Decora, Iowa. He is best known for his Scandinavian woodwork, while Jenson is, of course, famous for his Norwegian rosemary blooms.
During constant visits, the brothers transformed Jenson’s previously nondescript home in Milan into the Trestuen Garden Gallery. The brothers began attaching a studio to their hard-working artist friend after learning that she was one day trapped in the building she was using.
“One day, I shut the door and locked everything. I couldn’t even get out. I had to call Doris Thompson to throw her body at the door so I could get out,” Jenson said, laughing at the remembrance.
The brothers cut down conifers from her garden and made beams in her home. Trestuen is a Swedish word meaning “tree room”. Their craftsmanship and hand-carved woodwork shaped design room after design room, and Jenson painted each in Norwegian Rosmaling and Swedish Dalamaling. Over 50 years of her art has made this house a work of art in itself, and the same can be said of the brothers’ wooden crafts.
“It’s all built on a love of nature,” said Ron Boreb, director of the Milan Village School of Art.
Milan Village School of Art has now started an early campaign with the goal of buying the house from the Jenson family. The goal is to keep and maintain the house as it has always been. Jenson and her husband bought the house in the 1960s and raised four children.
Jenson, now 86, has been living for the past two years in a supported living facility in Appleton. She makes occasional home visits. “Oops, it’s hard to let go,” she said. “Every time I come back, it’s hard to leave.” She said she hopes the campaign will save her.
Milan Village Arts School began renting the house in March 2020, or two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Boreb said the goal was to rent rooms in the house to students and teachers involved in Milan Village School of Art programs, while keeping the house available for art galleries, tours and events. COVID has halted those plans, but it hasn’t cut short the mission.
Milan Village School of Art raised $45,000 for the final purchase of the home. The goal is to raise up to $400,000, with the intent of setting aside an endowment to help fund its ongoing operations and maintenance.
It may seem an ambitious project for a relatively young folk art school, but it’s worth it, according to Boreb. “Until you see it and walk around the house, you don’t realize how special the house is.”
He still couldn’t walk home without discovering something he hadn’t seen before. Milan Village School of Art describes the house as “a masterpiece of design, color and Scandinavian art”. It houses a gallery, a painting studio, a master bedroom, a Swedish bedroom, a Norwegian bedroom, a library, and a Swedish-inspired kitchen. The house is surrounded by gardens that reflect Jenson’s passion for gardening and nature.
Boreb and Milan Village School of Art are optimistic about reaching the goal of preserving the Trestuen Garden Gallery. This optimism is reinforced every time he has the opportunity to lead someone through it. He said they were always “amazed”.
For information on how to support the campaign, visit givemn.org/organization/Milan-Village-Arts-School.