Crystal Lokken's Norwegian grandparents immigrated to Wisconsin from Sogn in Norway in the 1880s and farmed in Dane County. Crystal grew up in McFarland, a small village a few miles southeast of Madison. She studied art at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She also studied at the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID, the University of California, Berkeley, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA, and other schools.

Lokken had a 28-year career teaching art in the Berkeley, CA, public schools. While teaching, she worked in several media—paintings, banners, logos, appliquéd ecclesiastical garments, serigraphy, stained glass, murals, and much more.

Now retired, she works mostly in watercolor, pastel and oil. Her work has been shown in Idaho, Wisconsin, Washington state, and in California.

Intrigued by the spirit of the earth, she began a search. When a cousin in Narvik, Norway, pointed out to her the mountain they call, "den Sovende Dronningen" (the sleeping queen), she recognized an earth spirit in the mountains of northern Norway.

She has often returned to northern Norway and has also traveled to islands in the North Atlantic and painted mountains of Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroes, Orkney, Shetland, the Isle of Man, Svalbard - all places settled by Norsemen at one time or another.

Crystal Løkken

e-mail: Crystalokk@aol.com