Big Folk Art: Jesus, Troll, Earth Eagle

Elbow Lake, Minnesota

According to Arvid Bakke, his father didn't talk about why he built large, full-color sculptures on his farm. But although the elder Allen Bakke wasn't communicative, he was industrious. He built about 30 sculptures in all, mostly using a steel frameworks covered by colored cement. His first big one, a Virgin Mary, stands in nearby Millerville. Most of the rest are still on the farm, only a few feet from the outbuildings where they were assembled, even though Allen died in 2013.

Allen's work includes a troll with an evil smirk -- made for Elbow Lake's annual Norwegian Flekkefest; a five-foot-high Jesus head that Allen later learned was too heavy to mount on a Jesus body; a model of the earth on which is perched a planet-size bald eagle; and Allen's final work, a 20-foot-tall Jesus made of mesh so that the wind wouldn't blow it down.