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Iceland has a very special place in my heart, and with June 17 here, I wanted to celebrate Iceland’s independence as well. In my city of Duluth, Minnesota, there is a bronze statue of Leif Erickson in a popular park. Although it is not as impressive as the Leifur Eiríksson statue in Reykjavik, it is the connection I feel with the two statues that is important. In October 2002, my girlfriend and I embarked on an adventure to Iceland, and I had romantic intentions in mind. After our over night flight from Minneapolis, we toured through Reykjavik and the first photo we took was in front of Leifur Eiríksson. During the trip we drove up the west coast to a mountain top near Snæfellsjökull. When we hiked to the summit, I set up a camera to take a timed photo of us the instant I proposed to my wife. A year later, we were married in Leif Erickson Park here in Duluth. For our honeymoon, we hopped on a flight back to where it all started, Reykjavik and the Leifur Eiríksson statue.

I wanted to share my enthusiasm for Iceland with my city, and I planned on making an addition to the Leif Erickson sculpture here in Duluth. The statue of Leif has him steering the styri of his ship with one hand and the other hand appears that it should be holding a solarsteinn, navigational tool, but it is empty now. That is where I had an epiphany, “Leif should be holding something, and why not make a statement at the same time?” That is when I thought that Iceland should be equally represented in the statue.

The monument was raised by the Norwegian League in 1956. The plaque on the statue reads:

 

 

 

 

 

The majority of people here in Duluth assume that Leifur Eiríksson sailed from Norway to discover America. Even though he was born of Norwegian parents, many people here do not know that he was, in fact, born in Iceland. My goal with my project is to make my neighbors aware that Iceland had a significant part in Leifur Eiríksson’s life. To draw attention to this idea, I constructed a large flag pole to display a large Icelandic flag. I was careful to place the flag pole from the base to his empty hand.

I also designed a small plaque proclaiming Leif Erickson’s Icelandic ties:

 

With June 17th being the Icelandic Independence Day, it was an opportune time to display the flag and proclamation. Here in Duluth, it is also the busiest weekend of the entire year. It is the annual marathon where over 10,000 people run past Leif Erickson, and hopefully many people will stop and take notice. So on this significant day in Icelandic history, the Icelandic flag will wave proudly in Duluth to symbolize Iceland’s role in our history. I hope to make this an annual tradition here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 24, 2005
There is a regional grocery store here in Duluth called Cub Foods. The stores were having an art contes tand it called for using no more than 50 grocery bags in creating a piece of art that reflected our community. I spent all day one Saturday with this creation:

It is called:
"Imported Scandinavian Foods -Aisle 6"

The winner from the store will get $250 in Cub gift cards, and go to the next round where the winner from all the stores will receive a year's worth of groceries!

I received a phone call from Cub foods, but iit was not the news I wanted to hear. i was beat out by an ore boat. The Vikings would not have settled for this! But that's ok, second place will have to do this time. I won a $50 gift card, so at least our groceries were paid for this week.