Some of the early artwork created by Michael Jackson’s personal artist, an Albert Lea native, has re-emerged in light of recent national media coverage of the pop singer’s death.

The artist, David Nordahl, who specializes in painting Apaches, was born in Albert Lea and graduated from Albert Lea High School in 1959. From 1988 through 2005, he completed thousands of drawings and roughly a dozen epic commissions for Jackson, according to a recent USA Today article.

Local couple Al and Mary Carstens said when they saw the article in USA Today featuring Nordahl’s experiences with Jackson, they recalled some of the experiences they had with the artist during his younger years. They still have a painting and a sketch he created.

Al Carstens said after high school when he was out working, he and Nordahl — who was still in high school at the time — would “chum around together.”

“He was a guy who did his own thing,” he said.

In 1958, Al Carstens asked Nordahl to paint a picture of his then-fiance, Mary. Nordahl was probably 17 or 18 at the time.

He painted the picture simply by looking at a photograph of the woman, who was then a senior in the Naeve Hospital School of Nursing. It has Nordahl’s signature and the year on the lower portion of the painting and looks the same now as it did the day it was painted, Mary Carstens said.

The Carstens said they did not know much about Nordahl’s family life. When he left Albert Lea, they lost track of him.

According to a Jan. 7, 1990, Albert Lea Tribune article, Nordahl, who was described as a “young Rembrandt,” set up a studio in 1958 to earn enough money for school.

But, the article stated, Nordahl never made it to art school and had only taken two formal art classes: One at Albert Lea High School for which he earned a D-, and the second at a community college in Steamboat Springs, Colo., for which he received an F.

“The lesson there is you can’t rely on someone else if you’re going to learn to do something,” he said in the article. “Art must come from the inside.”

According to the USA Today article, Nordahl had an abusive, alcoholic father. He noted that drawing gave him the chance to leave the real world.

When he moved to Colorado in 1977, he began specializing in Apaches.

It was a painting that featured Army troops invading an Apache camp that led Jackson to Nordahl, according to the article. Jackson asked Nordahl if he would teach him art lessons.

The USA Today article stated Nordahl and Jackson had a bond because they both grew up as troubled youth.

“I always thought of him as normal,” Nordahl said in the article.

“He’s the most thoughtful, respectful person I’ve ever met. In 20 years, I never heard him raise his voice.”

He said over time, he and Jackson got to be such good friends that he forgot who he was hanging out with.

“Then he’d break into these dance moves, quick as lightning, and it would dawn on me: He’s the best entertainer in the world,” Nordahl said in USA Today.

The Carstens said they’ve contacted a museum curator about the Nordahl portrait they have. The curator told them the painting will be worth a lot after the artist passes.