David was born in 1946 and grew up in rural Oneida, just west of Green Bay, WI. His parents were farmers and he grew up helping with the farm work. In college David studied architecture and became a registered architect in 1974. After college he joined the army where he served for three years, including one year in Vietnam.<\/p>\n After returning from the service he was employed as an architect and in 1986 he ventured out on his own.<\/p>\n He began carving in 1998 and was fortunate to take a number of classes with some very experienced master carvers. David began to enter local and national decoy carving contests and has won numerous ribbons, over 30 Best of Show\u2019s and a 3rd place finish for Best in the World at the Ward World Championships in Ocean City, Maryland. David was also named the International Wildfowl Carver Association Novice and Intermediate carver of the year. David was chosen to carve decoy models for the Flambeau Decoy Co. and they are still marketing the \u201cStormfront\u201d \u00a0mallard and wood ducks from his models!<\/p>\n![\"David](\"https:\/\/atomiccoffee.com\/WWA\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_1395.jpg\")
<\/a>Many carvers begin their carving careers fretting about applying paint to their expertly carved decoys. David VanLanen was not one of those carvers; he began his artistic career with painting flat art scenes but soon grew bored of that and began carving decoys!<\/p>\n<\/a>David\u2019s day job as an architect included a lot of drawing and he found himself painting flat art in his spare time. Nature and wildlife scenes were his favorite. One day while painting a nature scene at Barkhausen Wildlife preserve near Green Bay he met a man carving decoys. From that time forward David had the decoy carving bug!<\/p>\n