"Extremely Local News" is a monthly column written by ICL reporter Shaila Johnson
Living in Polk County all my life in a family of seven, it was a special occasion to go to eat in a restaurant. The first time I ever ate shrimp was when my dad took me out, all by myself without my pesty little brothers to Jan’s Family Restaurant, downtown St. Croix Falls. A couple times after church we went to the Pink Panther in Centuria. Without phones or electronics to keep us busy at the table, my brothers and I would gaze at the display of decorative clocks that they had for sale on the wall. Everything from rainbows, to wildlife, to kitten pictures they made into clocks. We would ask each other, “If you could buy any one you wanted, which one would it be?” When the waitress would ask us if we wanted anything to drink, we would look at my dad, and he would nod, giving us permission to order a pop. Then mom would say, “only orange or grape.” Perhaps she thought those two flavors were somehow better for us but I giggle to think that they probably had more sugar in them than the others. Trollhaugen was my first introduction to the salad bar. My mind was blown away that you could possibly eat all the chocolate pudding you wanted. I felt so fancy.
Only in the last 10 years or so, now that I probably consider myself an adult, have I visited Indianhead Supper Club in Balsam Lake. Perhaps my habit of gazing at the wall clocks I picked up as a child, had me gazing at the walls of Indianhead and staring into the eyes of the Native Americans, painted by Derk Hansen.
Originally from Germany, Hansen had apprenticed as a window display and background design curator. Traveling to Canada in 1964, he found a job designing window and interior displays. In 1966, Hansen, his wife and daughter immigrated to the United States and currently lives in Woodbury, Minnesota. Never attending art school, he was never a formally trained classical painter. Hansen’s painting career began when a company he was working for had paintings that needed repair. His boss approached him, asking if he knew how to paint. Hansen replied, “I don’t have a clue, I do a little drawing every now and then.” The boss handed Hansen his credit card and sent him to the art store to buy paints to learn how to paint and repair canvases. Through this process he learned to love to paint. Studying the different styles with thick paint, palate knife and brush work and learning how to mix the different paint colors to match the existing artwork was invaluable experience for his future painting career. After repairing hundreds of canvases, Hansen decided he could create paintings of his own.
The classic Native American prints on velvet displayed at Indianhead were painted in the early ‘70s by Hansen. A dramatic color effect, the velvet paintings became very popular. Hansen would travel all over the U.S. selling them in shopping centers. Using inspiration from other areas he would paint his subjects, sometimes in multiple paintings. Hansen recalls but is quick to disclaim that his memory isn’t what it used to be, that someone contacted him from Indianhead who had seen his velvet paintings and commissioned him to paint a grouping for Indianhead.
“I’ve never looked at myself as an artist. I’m a guy that paints pictures, and painting pictures has gotten me to all different places all over the world in one way or another. Painting life has been good to me, and thankfully I was determined enough to make it work. It’s taught me that there is a painting for everybody. Whether it’s good, bad, outstanding or it really sucks. Every artist should remember that because sometimes we can be way too critical of our work when we compare ourselves to other artists. You need to work with what you got, make it work, and be honest with yourself and accept the fact that there will always be someone who is better. That applies to many areas of life.”
I’ll always look at the faces in those paintings a little differently now. I’ll always admire the beauty of those people but I will also see the face of Hansen. A man who just rolled with life and let it take him where it took him, doing what he loved. He was one of the lucky ones. The universe was kind to him, living the American dream.
