Despite fighting leukemia, Walter Deuschle, a 92-year-old Huntingdon Valley artist, is always up for a challenge, writes Grace Dickinson for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
His latest project was a 7-and-a half-foot-tall Eiffel Tower he recreated using 2,000 wine corks. The project took nine months to complete. In that time, Deuschle used a Swiss Army knife to chisel the many corks into building blocks.
The process helped him get through not just the pandemic, but his ongoing fight with blood cancer.
“I’ve had some breakdowns mentally — even though I passed 92, you still want to be young, to stay vigorous and productive,” said Deuschle. “But I look at chemo the same way I look at the Eiffel Tower, a challenge I’d overcome.”
And while undergoing chemotherapy each month is tiring, there is still rarely a day when Deuschle does not spend at least half an hour on his art.
“It helps me generate energy — it requires concentration, and you need to develop energy to concentrate, and that helps me spiritually,” he said.
Once the pandemic dies down, he is hoping to have the tower displayed in a museum or somewhere where the public can enjoy it.
Read more about Walter Deuschle at The Philadelphia Inquirer by clicking here.
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