Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Eklund
Hi Allison, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have always been a person of many passions that are very different from each other. As a child, I loved horses above all else. My love of horses developed into a passion for drawing and painting them. In high school, I became an avid member of the debate team while participating in band and orchestra as a flute player. These interests competed with each other for my time and attention. I began to understand that I would never focus on only one of my interests. My life’s challenge would be to find my own unique balance to accommodate them all.
In college, I studied art, art history, and music while spending summers working as a horse wrangler on dude ranches in Colorado. Unsure of a career path, I attended seminary after college with the idea of becoming a pastor. Instead, I found another passion: structural ethics and its practical applications to help people solve real problems. After receiving a master’s degree from seminary, I followed my new passion to law school, where I enjoyed the sport of debating again in “moot court” competitions. International law caught my interest, and I advanced to regional and national finals in both international moot court and space law moot court. In my final year of law school, I argued a fictional appellate case before judges including NASA scientists over the limits of sovereignty on the moon.
An exciting career lay ahead, I believed, when I landed a plum job at a large law firm. Alas, I was miserable. The business of law was not as inspiring as the real problems I was assigned to help solve, and the complex social hierarchy of a corporate office environment felt opaque and exhausting. I jumped ship and landed in a small, boutique law firm that represented American Indian tribes and tribal organizations. This satisfying job was essentially international law. Call it domestic nation-building. I worked in human services, law enforcement, environmental protection, gaming, real estate, and business development. It was a blast. I grew a set of tools in my proverbial tool box that became so useful and universal, I quit and, in 2007, hung out my own shingle as a solo attorney.
When anyone starts a new business, they naturally go first to the people they know. I knew horse people from my youth spent riding and competing in saddle clubs, 4H, Pony Club, and county fair equestrian events. Soon I was helping stable owners and horse owners with garden variety problems like property taxes, zoning, contracts, and business disputes. At the same time, I finally was in a position to make my own time and decide how to spend it. I began making art again, and I picked up my flute and began taking lessons on mandolin. I attended workshops and learned new media and skills. I discovered an art form and community of artists that fit perfectly with my interests: plein air painting. I could be outside, with like minded friends, painting landscapes and other scenes from life, in a quixotic quest to capture the essence of the moment. In 2014, I joined the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra as both mandolin player and occasional flute soloist. I also joined Outdoor Painters of Minnesota and assumed a leadership role. I embraced the full diversity of my various interests and dug in for the long haul.
The last 10 years have been a joyous blur of law, art, and music. When people ask what I do, I like to say, I practice: I practice law, practice art, and practice music. I also enjoy horses and horseback riding, though I no longer own any since I discovered international horseback travel. I have combined horseback adventures in Iceland with painting excursions, painting both plein air and studio paintings as if they were living postcards of memory. I organize plein air painting events for OPM, including an annual winter painting expedition to the BWCAW and Plein Air Grand Marais, an annual competition and festival of outdoor painting in Cook County, Minnesota. I help organize an annual traveling exhibit of paintings from Minnesota’s premier painting competitions in collaboration with other arts organizations. And I am an executive board member with the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra, which has grown from about 15 regular members to over 40 in the years I have participated. MMO is now the largest mandolin orchestra in the United States.
A life so deeply committed to disparate interests is not easy. I’ll never be the best at any one thing that I do. But I can participate at a high level of satisfaction and achievement in areas that I passionately believe in and aspire to excel at, while making enough money to pay my way through life by helping others solve problems. I am a freelance problem solver, outhouse counsel, attorney at large. People trust me to help guide them through difficulties in a complex world that any one person cannot fully comprehend without help. I like being the helper. When other people’s problems come close to being my own, I have art and music as a refuge and avenue of expression. I think that, in my quirky balance of interests and avid practices areas, I have stumbled upon the Secret Sauce of Life.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The hardest parts of my journey have been the bushwhacking through uncharted territory. The uncertainty of not knowing. Also, I have learned that we must accept that the best parts of ourselves might also be our Achilles heel. Always, always, always beware of what. you do not know.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Eklund Law, PC?
Eklund Law, PC focuses on equine business law, small business and nonprofit formation and governance, legacy lands and estate planning. As a “small town lawyer in a big city,” I embrace a general practice that helps individuals, families, and small businesses to understand the tools available to help them meet their goals and thrive.
Eklund Art Studio is the assumed name for my art practice. I create and sell original drawings and paintings of landscapes, horses, people, and other subjects, largely from life.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I have been happily married for 34 years to Andrew Eklund, also an entrepreneur, who has operated his own digital advertising agency since 1995. We met in high school when we both played in Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies. We were on orchestra tour together in Costa Rica in 1985, but did not actually meet until the spring of 1986 when our families (Eklund and Fabyanske) were seated alphabetically next to each other at the GTCYS senior banquet. We both attended St Olaf College from 1986-1990 and married in February 1991.
Pricing:
- Basic Estate Plan $1,500
- 18×24 Oil Painting $1,500
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.allisoneklund.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eklundart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allison.eklund/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisoneklund/
