I'm Alex Haunty and I love Art. When I was nine, I met Cathy Ostrom, at her former studio, “The Art Room" in Middleton WI. I spent Saturdays there making pottery with Cathy and her family and having lots of fun.
When I started middle school "The Art Room" closed and I was sad, but I soon fell in love with playing piano and singing and musicals, especially Phantom of the Opera. In high school my voice teacher Wendy Rowe thought I could do a senior recital and of course I wanted to. My mom said she didn’t think I could do one but she let me go for it because Wendy and I talked her into it.
Cathy Ostrom came to my music soireé and said to my mom " I think Alex could do something like this with art. I would like to work with him to do an art show. " My mom said "Well, I’m not sure he can paint but he can have fun learning, just don't say anything to him about an art show!”
That next September Cathy invited me to her home and I started painting. She put flowers on her table and showed me a book with Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings and I looked at this and painted my first painting that I call Flowerworks. I gave it to my mom. The next week Cathy brought out a print of Van Gogh's Starry Night. I had seen this before because my sister had a poster of it in her living room at college. Cathy put an easel on her deck overlooking Lake Mendota and I started to paint my Sailing on a Breeze. I gave this painting to my sister Melissa.
Alex’s MHS Graduation Speech 2011Cathy brought my first three paintings to The Prairie Café in Middleton, WI and they said they would host an art show with my paintings!! Now we just had to get my mom to agree! Thank you Cathy for seeing me and my love of art and working with me the past year and a half to put this art show together. Thank you Prairie Café for hosting my art show! I am so excited to share my art with you all.
Now I hope to use my art show to share my love of theater with my friends. In 2011, I received an " I See You" Award from the Zieman Corporation of WI because of my involvement with 
Best Buddies at Middleton High School. Best Buddies is an organization dedicated to one-on-one friendships with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. With the award money I created the "Alex Haunty's Theatre & Arts Fund” so my classmates with special needs could have access to the arts like I have had. The article from the Middleton Times newspaper shows last year's event when I took my friends to Beauty and The Beast. Learn more about Alex Haunty's Theatre & Arts Fund
I hope you enjoy my art and it inspires you!
Alex Haunty
written with some input from
his mom, Mary Beth Haunty