The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2000, Qupperneq 31

Vol. 55 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
329
Einar Vigfusson - Realistic
Wildfowl Carver
by Rosalind Vigfusson
Einar began wildfowl carving in 1984.
He has had instruction from some of North
America’s finest carvers including Paul
Burdette of Orangeville, Ontario; World
Champion Bob Guge of Illinois; and Marcus
Schultz of Minneapolis.
Einar has been awarded numerous Best
of Show awards at carving competitions and
Juried Art shows and was a two ribbon win-
ner at the Ward World Championships in
Ocean City, Maryland in 1994. He has had
several showings of his work at Manitoba Art
Galleries and also at the Museum of Man and
Nature in Winnipeg. He has exhibited at the
Manitoba Art Expo since its' inception.
His carvings are held in private collec-
tions in Canada, U.S.A., New Zealand,
Australia, Japan and Europe. Over the
years,he has often donated his work to sever-
al fundraising endeavors both in his home
community and provincially including
Manitoba Wildlife Rehabilitation
Organization and Ducks Unlimited.
Einar is the son of Johann and Emily
Vigfusson (both deceased) of Arborg,
Manitoba. Emily is descended from
Skagafjiirdur in Northern Iceland. His father
Johann was born at Amanes, in Eastern
Iceland (close to Hofn).
In the fall of 1997, Icelandic Art Critic,
Adalsteinn Ingolfsson visited the Arborg area
of Manitoba and brought with him, an exhibi-
tion of works by renowned Icelandic artist,
Kjarval. We attended this presentation and
found it to be interesting, informative, and
beautiful. At the suggestion of our friends,
David and Gladys Gislason, Adalsteinn visit-
ed our home gallery the following day and
after viewing the carvings, said “I would real-
ly like to see these carvings displayed in
Iceland." To us, this was a most exciting
prospect, and would be a “dream come true”
but we hardly dared to believe it could
become reality.
But over the next several months, plans
and ideas began to take shape and Einar was
accepted as the second Canadian to take part
in the International Visits Program of the
INL. He felt very honoured to have been cho-
sen to show his carvings in Iceland. Gail
McCleery, Program Director, worked tireless-
ly on our behalf, coordinating the trip.
During these months of planning, Einar
was extremely busy in his workshop, creating
several new pieces, especially for the show in
Iceland. He had obtained several books on
Icelandic birds and these were a great source
of inspiration. He has memories of his grand-
father talking about the birds of Iceland, and
names such as Langvia and Hringvia conjured
up pictures in his mind of the beautiful
Murres which made their homes in the craggy
cliffs of that distant land. There were four of
us in our travel party; Einar and Rosalind, our
13 year old son Kristian and Rosalind's moth-
er Olga Johannesson. We have all been to
Iceland before, and were looking forward to
this six week vacation where we would have
plenty of time to explore the country and to
visit family and friends.
We had done a fair amount of genealogi-
cal research over the past year and were well
prepared to contact some new branches of our
family tree. Rosalind designated part of the
travel journal as a family history. It consisted
of sixteen branches - eight great-grandparents
for each of us. Then, when we met new rela-
tives, we could enter their names into the
appropriate section. This will be a great
resource for family members who may travel
to Iceland in the future.
We arrived in Keflavik on the cool rainy
morning of July 8th. Valgeir Thorvaldson,
director of the Emigration Museum at Hofsos
(and a relative of both Einar and Rosalind),
welcomed us warmly at the airport, then took