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Welcome to this gallery dedicated to the people and land of North Dakota. I am grateful for the time I spent there and for the people who made me feel at home. My body may be in another state, but my heart will always remain in the land I love; North Dakota.
All of the inspiration for the work (paintings, sculptures, photographs and digital art) in this gallery came from the time I spent in North Dakota. Most of that time was spent in the southwestern part of the state, in and around Taylor, where my great, great grand parents settled after coming from Norway, in 1887.
All of my grandparents were born in North Dakota as were my parents. I was born in Long Beach, California. My love of the state of North Dakota began in the early 1950's. That was when my parents took me to North Dakota for the first time. The best memories of my childhood are of our visits there. Ever since then North Dakota, has in my heart, been home to me.
I wish I had the gift of writing, so I could tell you how much that place called North Dakota means to me, but I don't. It is so hard for me to put words together that make any sense, or that really express how I feel. |
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The things I miss most about North Dakota are: the open spaces, the quite and solitude (how my soul longs for that), the night sky, the smell of it and the feeling of wonder and peace when I looked out over miles and miles of farms and prairies and of course the people. It is the good and kind people of North Dakota that made me feel I was home and welcome. God bless you all.
For me the beauty of North Dakota is it's simplicity, openness and sparse population. I wonder if most people in North Dakota really appreciate how fortunate they are to live in such place. I hope North Dakota never experiences the fate of other states like California when it comes to population growth. For me Southern California has gone from a wonderful place to live to an ever increasingly impossibly place to live, because of over population.
No place is perfect however. I did not love everything about North Dakota. In fact their are a few things I really hated, like: the wind! At times it would blow for days on end and just when I felt I would go completely insane; it would stop and I would then feel like I was in heaven. Then of course theirs the mosquitoes and the COLD winters, but I don't need to go into all that. You who live there know what I am mean and for those who don't live in North Dakota, you don't want to know.
The fact is when I compare the good with the bad things about living in North Dakota, I end up with this; I hope and pray that someday (sooner then later) I will be able to return home to the place I love and spend the rest of my life there.
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Copyright © 1965-2008 - W. T. Thorenson - All Rights Reserved |
