Ask Albert Lea native David Nordahl how he got started in the art world, and he’ll tell you it’s something that’s always been a part of his life.

“I started drawing when I was little,” he said. “I remember when I was in grade school, I used to sell drawings of cowboys to classmates for a nickel.”

In his younger years, he painted signs, pinstriped cars and even painted portraits on the side.

“As I got older, just about everything I did — all my jobs, whatever — always had something to do with art,” Nordahl said. “Of course when I was young, I never thought it would be something for me as a profession.”

But the artist’s talent took off.

Now, Nordahl, who lives in Sante Fe, N.M., has gained recent attention as Michael Jackson’s personal artist, completing thousands of drawings and roughly a dozen epic commissions for the pop singer from 1998 to 2005.

He’s also gained much notability for his paintings of Apache Indians.

“My art is my life, that’s what I do,” Nordahl said. “I just feel fortunate that I’ve been able to make a living at doing this because it’s not always easy.”

Nordahl’s early life

Before becoming famous in the art world, Nordahl started his life in the Albert Lea area.

As a young boy, Nordahl moved several times in the area.

He said he went to school near Emmons in first grade, moved near Kensett, Iowa, where he attended school through fourth grade and then moved near North Branch, where he attended fourth through eighth grade.

When he was in junior high, he moved to Albert Lea.

It was around that same time that he left home and began supporting himself through high school by working on farms, he said.

He declined talking about his family life, calling it “unpleasant.”

He worked on a housing development in Carl Sondergard’s subdivision for a summer, at a sign company, designing signs and storefronts, and eventually rented the studio above Sondergard’s Broadway Service Station, 901 S. Broadway Ave., where he painted and lived, he said.

An Albert Lea Tribune article from Jan. 7, 1990, described Nordahl as a “young Rembrandt.”

He graduated from Albert Lea High School in 1959.

Right out of high school, Nordahl was hired at Church Offset Printing.

“He just had a natural talent,” said Margaret Kruse, wife of the late Dan Kruse, who owned Church Offset Printing at the time. “He was just wonderful.”

Besides his employment at Church Offset Printing, Nordahl also was involved with other venues around town, including painting sets for Albert Lea Civic Theatre and painting portraits for people on request.

In 1968, he moved to Minneapolis and in 1977, he moved to Steamboat Springs, Colo., where he began specializing in Apaches.

He was interested in painting Apaches because of the lack of information available about them, he said.

In the fall of 1979, he moved to Santa Fe, N.M., where he still lives today with his wife, Lori Peterson. He has three children from a previous marriage.

He said he hasn’t been to Albert Lea for 10 or 11 years.

“It really would be nice to see people,” Nordahl said. “I was in Minneapolis about a year and a half ago but didn’t get a chance to get to Albert Lea. I’ve been meaning to get down there.”

‘I can’t really retire’

Nordahl encouraged any young artists who have what he described as “real desire” for art to go to art school to develop their talents.

“You have to be really interested,” he said. “It can’t just be something you like to do every once in a while.”

He said he thinks only about 15 to 20 percent of artists are actually able to make a living off their artwork, and there’s another 15 percent that make enough to pay for their materials. The rest don’t make enough to cover even that.

Nordahl noted he only took two formal art classes, one at Albert Lea High School and the second at a community college in Steamboat Springs, Colo.

He said he almost flunked the class at ALHS after his teacher reprimanded him for trying help some of the other students.

“He threw me out of the class because he said that was not my job to do that,” Nordahl said. “I got in a big argument with him, but later went back in and talked to him.” He got a D minus.

He also received a low grade in his community college class, when his teacher thought he was trying to make her look bad, he said. He got an F.

Despite this, he said he thinks art school is important.

“The man who teaches himself has an idiot for a teacher,” he said.

Now, as Nordahl approaches 70, he is working on a commission for the former head of MGM in California. He also has a show coming up in Tucson, Ariz.

He said he hasn’t thought about retiring.

“I can’t really retire,” he said. “A lot of people work their whole life so they can retire and paint. What would I do?”