Stauffer Linda on sun 13 jan 08
Made several new bushes today using deer antler handles. I started
making brushes last year after a brush making workshop with Susan
Kahn . Sculpture began at a very early age. My mom worked in redware-
sgrafitto and I always had a piece of clay to make things with. I was
lucky to have a great art teacher in elementary school and I knew by
third grade I was going to be an art teacher and go to Kutztown State
Teacher College, now Kutztown University. I got a scholarship to the
Baum School of Art in 5th grade and my painting and drawing career was
underway. As a teenager I grew up just down the street from the most
famous potter in our area, Raymond Gallucci. I got to walk past his
enclosed front porch filled with pots several times a week. As we
walked to Jr. HS we also had to pass a store in downtown Allentown
that sold Galucci's pots. I would walk through there everyday and look
at all the beautiful forms and glazes. In HS I was lucky to have the
same art teacher I had in elementary school. As an art major we were
required to take an anatomy class for art students. We dissected cats,
fetal pigs and drew everything! We had to make a skull out of clay
and make each of the deep and superficial muscles and place it
correctly on the skull, then finish the head and cast it in plaster.
I did go to Kutztown "74 and became an art teacher. Over the 30
years I taught, I've received many letters of thanks from former
students and many invitations to openings Many of the "kids" still
keep in touch and let me know how they are doing. I retired in 2003
after the death of my 19 year old daughter. When I opened the Katie
Stauffer Memorial Art Center 3 years ago I got many anonymous
donations that just read, "from a former student". My art and my
ability to express myself through art has helped me deal with the
never-ending griefI live with every day. I wanted to do nothing but
join my daughter, then art saved my life.
bkwrmkt@entermail.net
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