‘Calmness' and strength
Inspired artist brushes away all obstacles
L ocal artist Terry Haffner remembers watching his twin brother ramble down the street with friends on summer mornings, the group of neighborhood boys forming a ragtag fleet of bicycles that would zigzag across sidewalks and streets.
But Haffner, who was born without arms and only partial legs, could only watch, he says. From the porch or a window, he would watch the other boys rushing off toward an afternoon of baseball or bike riding. And, of course, he’d feel an occasional pang of sibling jealousy.
“Maybe I couldn’t go running off with my buddies like by brother did,” Haffner says. “But I could draw better than he could. There was not room – then or now – for pity.”
Back inside the house, Haffner’s mother would place crayons between his toes and offer him stacks of paper for doodling. There, he would scribble away, not realizing he was learning a skill that would provide him a lifelong career as both an artist and an activist for people with disabilities.
“I never thought I was more courageous than anyone else,” Haffner says. “But I suppose, if you use artificial limbs, people think you’re being courageous just getting through an average day. Driving a car, attending a concert, painting.”
Nearly 50 years after Haffner began drawing with crayons, his paintings now sell for hundreds of dollars. His work – a collection of landscapes and seascapes – currently shows at Turnstone Center for Disabled Children and Adults and the Lake Gage Marina.
Using alternating thick and thin layers of paint, Haffner’s paintings have the richness of color and the subtlety and depth of stroke of most oil paintings. But Heffner has used acrylic paint since 1974, the year a principal from a high school in New Jersey sent him a set of acrylics. The principal had read about Haffner and his desire to be an artist in an article in the “National Enquirer.”
“I’d been using pen and ink before that,” Haffner says. “But receiving those paints in the mail, that really inspired me. People believed in my work.”
Haffner paints using the hook at the end of his right prosthetic arm and, for the fine detail, his mouth. His barns and country homesteads display detailed and weathered planks of wood; trees stand atop fine and sturdy trunks, deftly painting with delicate strokes. And in nearly every painting, you can find water – frozen streams and snow, tumbling waterfalls, crooked brooks.
“Water is the best psychologist there ever was,” Haffner says. “It’s calming. It’s soothing. It can get you excited about life. The older I get, the more I’m drawn to water.”
Painting is just one of Haffner’s passions. The other is activism, he says. As a public speaker, Haffner regularly visits schools, demonstrating his painting technique to children. Because of their natural curiosity, kids will often ask questions about Haffner’s disability some adults are too shy to ask. Do you drive a car? (Yes.) How tall are you? (3 feet, 9 inches.)
“I’m not embarrassed when I get stares,” he says. “Because people will generally begin with your face. They’ll see your balding head, your graying hair. But they’ll also see your smile.
“And when I speak in public, I always look at the crowd. Because it’s one friendly face, multiplied a thousand times.”
Currently, Haffner is sending copies of his autobiography, “Born with Less, Blessed With More,” to publishers, hoping a book will increase his opportunity to show everyone how much people with disabilities can achieve, he says.
“I was 9 or 10 years old when I saw my first wheelchair basketball game,” Haffner says. “And I couldn’t believe it. I came home so inspired. To think that these people could do this – and do it in front of people. And that’s what I want to do. I want to inspire people, whether onstage or from behind the easel.”
Haffner’s paintings are also available on his Web site (
www.terryhaffner.com
). But much of his work is commissioned by people who want a portrait of a family home or vacation spot. And, sometimes, by people who are inspired by the physical challenges he overcomes in order to produce his art.
“You worry sometimes,” he says. “You wonder if people are buying your art because they feel sorry for you. But I find that most people enjoy and are inspired by my work.
“And that’s what I want. I want to do more than show and tell. I want my work to speak for me.”
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