Art of Aging: Huntingdon Valley man creates Disney magic

A 90-year-old Huntingdon Valley man is spending his retirement years making art and creating a little bit of that Disney magic.

Walter Deuschle emigrated to the States in the 1950s. In war-torn Germany, as a boy, his talent was clear.

"I have two drawings, where the date goes back to January '43," he said.

Deuschle painted and sculpted for years. His inspiration? "The beauty of nature," he said.

And a trip to Disney World with his granddaughter, "I saw the eyes and the wonder of a child, and she said, 'pop-pop, look at this.'"

Deuschle, a retired chef, decided to recreate Cinderella's castle using sugar as a medium but when that proved too fragile, he started working with wine corks.

The more wine corks he and his wife, Mary, collect, the more Deuschle sculpts.

One of his first cork projects was inspired locally.

"I took the idea from the Philadelphia Art Museum, where you get up the steps," said Deuschle.

But the 90-year-old Deuschle's most recent sculpture is his piece de resistance.

It's that Cinderella castle painstakingly recreated. It took 7,000 corks and 2 and a half years to complete.

"If you can dream it, you can do it. I really and truly adopted that philosophy from Walt Disney," said Deuschle.

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