John Tuska

Tuska was born in Yukon, Pennsylvania, as the eighth of ten children and the only son of a coal miner, a Slovakian immigrant. At the age of 6 his family moved to New York with the beginning of the Great Depression and John Tuska grew up in New York. Tuska graduated from an alternative high school for the arts and worked proofreading Collier's Encyclopedia for 25 cents a day. His creative spirit was evaluated from walking along the streets of the city and visits to the Brooklyn Public Library. Having finished his journey to Japan he began being interested in pottery. He was educated at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. [2] After graduating he came to Kentucky for a teaching job at the Murray State University. Having workeв there for three years he moved to University of Kentucky.

He was a professor at the University of Kentucky where he had lectured for more than 30 years. His classes and workshops (for the general public), had brought art to a wider audience. Tuska's body of work can be found in collections and public spaces, both regionally and internationally.[1] He created thousands of pieces of art in a variety of media, including drawing, collage, ceramics and papier-mache.[3] His last major work was Illumine, a "series of 56 bronze figures celebrating individual human expression that are mounted on the façade of UK's Fine Arts Building". He was working on it for 10 years - from 1985 to 1995. Other works include Study of 4 Squares mixed media on paper. [4]

His son devoted his life to spreading the legacy of his famous father by having organized different exhibitions. John Tuska's work can always be found on the campus of the University of Kentucky.[2] After his death, his son Seth has developed Tuska Studio according to his father commission in order to produce works' process and to show Tuska projects' technique. Tuska continued to create and teach until his death. [5]

His wife Miriam which he first met at Alfred, worked with textiles all her life. They had two sons Seth and Stephen. In 1975 the family bought a Victorian house at Old Park Avenue in Lexington, this house is now the Tuska Museum and Gallery.[4]