Welcome to Decorah Arts. My name is Richard Earl Johnson.

I created Decorah Arts as a place to share my love for painting and my growing fondness for the community of Decorah, Iowa and the surrounding area. My journey to Decorah began a few years back with the exploration of my Norwegian family history. It was during that process that I learned that both my great, great grandparents on my father’s side of my family left the same small island of Norway and immigrated to America on the very same sailing ship in the year 1886. Their final destination was listed as Decorah, Iowa. A town that up until that moment, I had never heard of. Curious to learn more, I was inspired to visit the area that my ancestors were so doggedly determined to call their new home.

Standing on the side of Old Pole Line Road and looking out over the land that my great, great grandparents worked as farmhands one hundred years before me was a moving experience, one that inspired me to return with paint brushes in hand in an effort to capture on canvas the beauty and history of Winneshiek, County.

I currently live in the Minneapolis area but make monthly trips to Decorah with an eye towards one day making it my permanent home.