“We had a grandfather who was well known for his calligraphy,” George Lundeen recalls. “If he sent you a letter, you would not only keep the letter but the envelope it was sent in. It was that beautiful.”
George, an internationally known sculptor, is explaining his artistic roots. He and his brother, Mark, a renowned sculptor in his own right, own Lundeen Sculpture in downtown Loveland. But their humble beginnings go back to the ’50s on a farm in the middle of Nebraska.
The Lundeen patriarchs mainly attribute their artistic skill and love of sculpture to growing up on the family farm. Their parents, while not artists per se, were accustomed to working with their hands and crafted many tools needed for farming.
“Our father had a passion for invention and had a workshop where he made many of his inventions,” George says. “We spent many hours working with him and learning to use the many tools he had accumulated. This came in handy in our lives as sculptors.”
You don’t run across families like the Lundeens very often: a family of artists with a couple of business-minded siblings in the mix who can navigate not only the tools of their trade but create a successful business model as well. However, there is at least one other family in Northern Colorado with a similar story.
The Vilona family, of Berthoud, is also comprised of artists who share the struggles and triumphs of being in the business of creating. Both families take pride in their siblings’, parents’ and children’s artistic expression and make deliberate efforts to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.
The Lundeen family. Photo by Jordan Secher.
The legacy
The Lundeen family includes an accountant—George and Mark’s brother, Nelson—and four sculptors: Mark, George, Cammie (George’s wife) and Bets (Nelson’s wife). Another four family members work at the studio while pursuing their own artistic endeavors.
All of them work together, play together and understand the power of their family’s legacy. That legacy was built initially by George.
“For me, there was never a question about my quest to work in the area of visual art,” he says. “From my earliest recollection, my self-worth was always connected to my love of drawing, design and the visual experience. Plus, that was the only thing I succeeded at.”
Still, his quest wasn’t always easy.
“Imagine telling our parents that I was leaving the farm to pursue a career as an artist,” George says, though ultimately his parents encouraged their children to go their own direction. “Our parents gave each of their six children an independent streak.”
All of the Lundeen children received college degrees, and several have post-graduate degrees as well. George studied in Italy as a Fulbright-Hays scholar and obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Hastings College and a master’s degree in fine arts at the University of Illinois.
Cheri Vilona in her painting studio. Photo by Jordan Secher.
After college, George was drawn to the Loveland area for its foundries and the ability to sculpt close to where his bronze castings would be made. He relocated to Loveland in the mid-’70s and set up his own studio.
Meanwhile, Mark pursued a bachelor’s degree in business. After graduating, he spent eight months in Europe studying famous artists.
“Mark then came to Loveland to help me out with a couple projects,” George says. “After working with me for a year or two, he found his talent in sculpture and never looked back. The thought of [us] doing something different never came up.”
Their sister-in-law, Bets, had a similar upbringing, with grandparents who were World War II pilots and parents who were inventors. She met George and her future husband, Nelson, at Hastings College, where she learned to cast bronze.
Not long after, Bets and Nelson followed the brothers. A few years later, George met his wife, Cammie, who had come to Loveland to pursue her own career as a sculptor. The couple married in 1988.
Suddenly, the number of sculptors in the Lundeen family doubled as their reputations took off. Fast forward almost four decades, and their studio is known worldwide for its works of art.
The next generation of Lundeens help run the family business. There is Eric Crabtree, Cammie’s son from a previous marriage, who works full time at the studio as a craftsman doing finishing work and patinas for many of Mark and George’s sculptures. Warner, George and Cammie’s son, manages the studio and a group of Airbnbs above the space. Warner is a potter in his free time; he calls it his “winter hobby.”
Warner’s sister, Annalise, lives in Vermont with her family and pursues her own artistic passions. Kelly, Mark’s son, is a painter and splits his time between the family studio and his own career. Finally, there is Olivia, Nelson and Bets’ daughter, who helps run the administrative side of Lundeen Sculpture with her father.
If you ask the younger generation what it was like growing up in an artistic household, you get a lot of blank stares. It was, after all, normal to them. Olivia tells the story of how a young Annalise used to ask her schoolmates, “So, where is your dad’s studio?” thinking it a perfectly normal question.
What is striking is the way each family member gives the others space to express themselves, as if expression is an inherent right for every Lundeen. And while the younger generation grew up in a home full of creatives, the entire family recognizes the importance of translating that creativity into a viable business.
“They don’t train you to run a business in art school,” Bets says, “which is why a lot of artists are unsuccessful.”
The Lundeens rely heavily on Nelson to “keep everyone in line and keep the taxes paid,” as he puts it.
The family’s legacy is one that Olivia, Warner, Kelly and Eric are passionate about continuing, despite the challenges of making a living from creating art.
“I didn’t realize until my 20s that this is an industry that is difficult,” Olivia says. “[George and Mark] are their own salespeople, and every artist must do that.”
Though the artistic expression may come naturally, the Lundeens’ success “wasn’t just the artistic side of it,” Kelly says. “It was their hard work and their business.”
Jim Vilona
The retreat
Driving into the Vilona Studios property, you first pass a field of large sculptures, then the home where Jim and Cheri Vilona live. The grounds are manicured and beautiful, decorated with Jim’s sculptures, raised flower beds, gardens, shaded gathering spaces and unusual objects d’art.
The Vilona family has a similar story to the Lundeens, but in their tale, Jim and Cheri worked to create a space where their children could pursue their own artistic endeavors, each distinctly different from their own. Vilona Studios, located in west Berthoud, sits on five beautiful acres that have been designed to provide studio, gallery, entertainment and display space for Jim, Cheri and their children.
Jim and Cheri’s career together began in the early ’90s in Oregon, where they had a custom jewelry shop and spent a decade designing high-end pieces before selling the business and relocating to Boulder. Jim’s artistic path led him from jewelry design to an interest in furniture making, blacksmithing, sculpting and mixed media art.
Cheri is a painter with an affinity for working with oils. The couple’s daughter, Jessica, has a love of textiles and a business in Broomfield that features window treatments and home furnishings. Their son, Dylan, works with illuminated stone under the name Vilona Onyx. Their other daughter, Amelia, is a photographer, and the only sibling living out of state, Brian, is a stand-up comic in California.
As their children’s individual artistic talents began to manifest themselves, Jim and Cheri realized that pursuing art in the manner they wanted in Boulder was no longer feasible—“I make a lot of noise,” Jim says—so the family relocated to Berthoud 15 years ago. Since then, the property has been a work in progress, but as you walk the grounds of their artistic retreat, you realize that it has been a true labor of love.
A Vilona Onyx flourite lamp.
The property contains a blacksmithing studio for Jim, a painting studio for Cheri and a workspace for Dylan’s large, illuminated stone lamps and bowls. The family is in the process of building a studio space for Amelia’s photography.
“It is a place that people really enjoy experiencing,” Jim says, “and it is something they can’t receive in a store.”
It is also a place where a collector may come for a piece from one family member and find something else from another that they take home as well. The family works hard to support each other’s chosen medium and career path in an environment that allows them to collaborate.
“We provide feedback to each other and help each other run our businesses,” Amelia says. “We are all intertwined and provide creative support to each other.”
People go out of their way to visit Vilona Studios and support the business because it’s a family effort, Jim says. Much of their business comes from word of mouth and clients who return time and again to collect new pieces.
The gallery is by appointment only, but visitors are encouraged to linger on the property. In the future, the family hopes to add to the grounds so that they can offer artistic event space and possibly even rent out studio space to other local artists.
