BlB—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, June 4,1983
BY DEBBIE KOONTZ
BALLY At five-foot-two, eyes
of blue, petite and blonde, Linda
Moser raises eyebn when she
announces she’s a fa wife.
But this dairy fat wife, also a
talented &/*.st 1 walking
commercial fo- tht Ik industry,
says, “I try not to j the typical
farm wife.
“People tell me I like to be a
maverick, doing my own thing,
and it’s true. I’m discovering our
children are the same way too,”
she says.
Linda, known professionally
through her art work as ‘Lyn,’
resides with her husband La Verne
and their two children Sandy, 15,
and Mark, 13, on their 205-acre
LaLasa dairy farm in Berks
County.
Lyn, true to her character,
became a maverick in her art
work, also, when she ignored
formal art education in preference
of self-study.
“I wanted to develop my own
style, and I have. I love painting
trees and skies and doing land
scapes. I’m very emotional about
my work and people feel com
fortable with it because it’s
realistic,” she relates proudly.
This love of landscape painting
combined with her interest in
Lyn Moser stands by a buffet filled with her China pain
tings. The buffet, only one of several cabinets holding sam
ples of her work, rests in the studio-basement of her home in
Bally, in Berks County.
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LaLisa Holsteins, named for LaVerne, Linday and daughter
Sandy, was the name given to the 205-acre farm before son
Mark was born. Combining her interest in art with the
family's business of dairy farming, LaVerne and "Lyn”
created this design.
Farm wife paints, promotes daily life
farming made Lyn a natural for
painting farms, although farmers
make up only about 15 percent of
her clientele.
"Farmers do generally not like
to come in to my studio," Lyn says.
"They know what they want. They
want a picture of their farm, or
cow or some logo work done."
Though she doesn’t enjoy
painting cows because “farmers
are so particular with the pictures
they know every hair on that
animal” she relishes the op
portunity to paint farm landscapes
whether it be from a snapshot,
slide or personal visit to the farm.
"When people hear you can
paint, they think you can paint
anything, so they ask you to,” she
confides. And the strangest subject
she’s ever been requested to paint?
“A frog,” Lyn laughs.
The largest art work she has
ever completed was a hex sign for
the Holstein Convention in
Reading. Dairy fanner Galen
Crouse from Lancaster County
later purchased the sign. The same
design was also included on the
cover of the Convention booklet.
Lyn says she first discovered her
interest in art in elementary
school, but only dabbled with the
talent until she graduated high
school.
Picmt
At the time she was considering
college, but “then 1 met this
terrific farmer,” she remembers.
“He, of course, asked me to
marry him rather than go to
college. At that time, I was getting
more interested in my art work
and saw some potential for that, so
1 said‘yes.’”
Lyn remembers that “he said
then that the farm would have to
come first. As any farm wife
knows, the farm always comes
first. But as we got established, I
found more and more time for my
artwork.
“I'm my own person and I do
something 1 need to be doing,” she
says of her art. “But my husband
encourages me and recognizes that
I have to do something I want to
do.”
She laughs as she remarks, “The
most scary words are, ‘Wife have
you got a minute?’ Or, ‘Can you
run for a part?’ This is common of
all farm wives,” she says wryly, “
that when you come back with the
part, and they gave you the wrong
piece, it’s YOUR fault You never
get the right part the first time.
And of course, they’re not angry at
you, but you’re the closest one.”
Lyn describes her husband as
her “worst critic,” and that the
thing that irks her most is that
“he’s usually correct; so I ap
preciate his input.”
Although Lyn enjoys painting
almost any subject, using virtually
any medium, and creating on
different forms (she once painted a
6-foot tack box for a farmer), her
passion Lies with China painting.
China painting is an ancient art
involving a unique process of deep
colors painted over lighter ones.
According to Lyn, this is done
through a succession of three or
more coats of paint; each coat
being fired into the glaze before the
next one is applied.
Her 13-year-old studio, housed in
the basement of her 31-room
estate, displays many pieces Lyn
has completed through her
teaching. On display, and all for
sale, are vases, plates, necklaces
and earrings, and pitchers.
Besides her painting, her oc
casional demonstrations of Middle
East dancing, and being a full-time
farm wife, Lyn still finds the time
to demonstrate art work to groups.
It’s on these occasions that Lyn’s
maverick personality fully sur
faces: "I always give a com
mercial,” she announces.
“1 take pamphlets and brochures
about milk and cheese with me.
Usually somewhere in my art
demonstration I announce ‘Every
show has a commercial, so here’s
mine. 1 Then I proceed to tell them
that I’m a farm wife and that they
should eat dairy products.
“The commercial makes a
novelty. It’s something different.
The groups are usually non-farm
wives, so when they find out you’re
a dairy farmer, they realize that
they forgot farms wives can be
fashionable, and outgoing.’’
According to Lyn, the women
usually get very inquisitive,
Next to necklaces and earrings, the smallest work Lyn does
is belt buckles. The centers of these buckles are China
painting, requiring three separate firings and three paintings.
Lyn Moser is particularly proud of this milk can because it’s
painted “very differently" from other milk cans. The colors,
as well as the scene, wrap the sides and slowly fade into
whiteness.
Though most people recognize flowers as the most popular
subject for China painting, Lyn chose to paint a lancscape
complege with Holstein cows on this one, resulting in a very
pleasing work of art.
asking, “Do you drive the trac
tors? Do you milk the cows?”
“Then I’ll tell them what an
untypical day would be like for
me,” Lyn laughs. “1 count the
number of tunes I change my
clothing in one day.. .in the house I
dress nice, in the field where I*
dress for a suntan, in the barn
where I dress in old clothes, and
then changing again to run into
town for a part.”
Lyn says her commercial is
always received well. “People love
my commencal and people just
love dairy recipes.
"And it gives me a chance to say,
“Hey, milk is not fattening. And
cheese certainly has its place in
the diet. The commercial gives the
women something to talk about.
They met this crazy lady who
paints and farms and promotes
milk.”
Lyn also relates an experience
she had .while on an art trip m
Arizona. “The water was terrible
and I couldn’t drink it. So 1 asked
for milk. Then the next night
somebody heard me, and also
asked for milk. The next night a
few more asked for it and it just
spread around the room. By the
end of our stay there, the director
came up to me and said, ‘Do you
know we had to make a special trip
into town and get some milk to
make sure we had enough.’
“The women never think of
drinking milk,” she says.
(Turn to Page B 20)
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