P. BUCKLEY MOSS: THE LADY BEHIND THE BRUSH

P. BUCKLEY MOSS: THE LADY BEHIND THE BRUSH
Thursday, May 15 at 8:00 p.m. on WVPT

The facets of her art and the seasons of her life are captured in this special documentary P. BUCKLEY MOSS: THE LADY BEHIND THE BRUSH, which follows Pat’s life story with archival photos and video, along with interviews with her family, close associates, and P. Buckley Moss Society and Foundation officers.

World-renowned artist P. Buckley Moss overcame a learning challenge, tough criticisms, and pressures from the modern art culture to inspire others with her resilience and the ability to find joy in the simple and commonplace.

Pat had challenges that made her an unsuccessful student in her early years. She suffered from dyslexia, a challenge not understood by her teachers or family. She suffered from the knowledge that she could not keep up with her classmates, and from her teachers’ ridicule.

“Oh, my Lord,” said Moss. “I wanted to die and be buried in the woods…I wanted to run away and be Tarzan so I wouldn’t have to go to school. I thought, ‘Boy, isn’t he lucky, he can go and live in the woods, and not have to go to school and fail.’”
But Pat found a place in her art.

P. BUCKLEY MOSS: THE LADY BEHIND THE BRUSH follows Pat’s early life as she struggled in school, her later triumphs at Cooper Union, and her days as a short order cook at Mill Rift in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania where she met her future husband Jack Moss. The special talks with her children and examines how her career and family grew as they moved from New York to Texas and Waynesboro, Virginia. It follows her public and private life as her fame spread across the U.S. to Japan and to Italy. Along with her fame came her commitment to empower children who suffer with learning differences.

Pat commented, “We stress so very much working with learning-different children. You’ve got to find the thing that all children can be successful at. And everyone can be successful at something. You know, you can be the best mailman in town and be so proud of how your mail route is going and how people like you and how everything is getting delivered to the right houses.”

P. BUCKLEY MOSS: THE LADY BEHIND THE BRUSH was produced by Shari Pennington.