Harold Henriksen

I worked for a year after high school, then went to an art school.

In 1960 I found a job in the art department of a Minneapolis company. In 1962 I was drafted and was in the Army for two years. When I got out of the army, I had several jobs in small studios. In 1965 I freelanced in a space I rented in the Times building in Minneapolis.

In 1967 I was hired as an illustrator by RKB studios. I married Mery Amador a girl from Cochabamba Bolivia in 1968. We drove to Panama in 1971, then put our car on a boat to Columbia. We then drove to Cochabamba, Bolivia in time for Christmas.

We traveled a lot in South America. Mery was expecting our first child and flew home. I drove to Peru and shipped the car to the U.S. On our return to Minneapolis I began a long-term project illustrating children’s books. We bought a house near Cedar Lake in Minneapolis.

In 1980 after illustrating 90 children’s books, I went to Studio One an advertising art studio in Edina. In 1990 I freelanced again, and I am mostly retired now.

Cochabamba, Bolivia

My wife and I went to a small town not far from Cochabamba Bolivia. We saw a church with rows of stairs going up to the main door. We sat on the stairs with a row of houses & shops in front of us.

I started to draw, and as I did, the scene began to change. Someone brought a burro & tied it to a rail; then a bicyclist parked his bike. A dog walked across. There were chickens.

Then I felt I needed to turn around. All the rows were filled with people of the town. They had been quiet, and now as I drew, they would comment about what I drew.