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Hubbard muralist recovers from knife attack to continue painting

Tribune Chronicle / Burton Cole Muralist Linda Clark of Hubbard stands beside the first Flight of the Eagles statue that she and the Harding Park Meeting House Committee hope to place around the community. This one, titled “Eagles in Literature,” is displayed at the Hubbard Public Library.

HUBBARD — The artist whose panoramas adorn buildings across the Mahoning Valley cannot paint the big walls anymore — not since the knife attack that nearly ended her life.

Muralist Linda Clark calls the fact that she can paint at all a tremendous blessing. It’s why, 5 1/2 years after an assailant sliced her carotid artery, Clark seems busier than ever with community projects, including pushing the painting of 4-foot-tall eagle statues to take flight around Hubbard.

“To help others, it takes your mind off things,” she said. “It’s almost like there’s a reason I’m still here — to help others. There’s a reason I was given this gift of artwork. I believe we should share (our gifts) with others.”

SCRIBBLES ON THE WALL

“I was always interested in artwork, scribbling, drawing and creating at a young age. My mother encouraged this and always had art supplies on hand for me,” Clark, 62, said. “At school, I was always doodling in the (margins of schoolwork papers).

“The family joke is that I got scolded as a child for drawing on walls, but now I get paid to do it.”

She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Youngstown State University, then went to work. Her specialty was watercolor portraits of houses and pets. “I probably did hundreds of those, particularly of pets,” she said.

After moving from Boardman to Hubbard 33 years ago, she began painting accents on the walls and furniture of her own home. Her work really started to take off when a friend saw the work and asked her to paint a 10-foot My Little Pony scene on her child’s playroom wall.

As a mural artist, Clark painted everything from accents in bathrooms to scenes on the sides of buildings. One of her biggest was when an antique automobile club in Lowellville commissioned her about 10 years ago to incorporate all the club members’ cars. She painted a drive-in theater scene.

“I was nervous. Those guys are very picky about their cars,” she said. “It was hot, hot sun on brick walls. The paint was drying on the brushes as I did it.

“It’s still there.

“I love doing the mural work. I never know how they’re going to come out,” she said. “It challenges me to create.”

She would like to introduce a community program that would involve people of all ages to paint murals.

“The side of a building is like a blank canvas. It is such a creative outlet for children, giving them the creative spark they need to use their imagination and be proud of their work.”

KNIFE ATTACK

It was a Sunday — Nov. 10, 2013. Clark was wrapping up her shift at Sharon Regional Medical Center as a greeter at the emergency room.

“I had been on the job for seven months. I loved this job,” Clark said.

A couple hours earlier, Justin M. DelFratte, then 30, of Sharpsville, Pa., had signed in. A “regular,” DelFratte was back for more pain medication, she said. Medical staff in the ER triage section said no.

DelFratte returned to the waiting room, angry. He slammed the handset of a wall phone behind her. He sat for two hours working his cellphone. Then he began pacing, Clark said. She said she said handed him a cup of coffee.

Clark’s husband called to tell her he was on the way with their 13-year-old son to take her out to eat.

“The next thing I know, there’s this pain in my neck. It felt like somebody punched me,” Clark said. “I turned, and there’s his face, right there, looking at me, and he’s smiling. He pulled the knife out and there’s blood everywhere.”

An emergency room doctor held his hand over her neck wound for 40 minutes while a surgical team was called in. By the time they got Clark into surgery, she needed seven units of blood to replace what she’d lost.

“They thought I was going to die,” she said. “If I had been out in the parking lot, I would have bled to death.”

After seven hours of surgery, she was flown by medical helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where she stayed for a month. In all, she underwent five surgeries.

Later, when she saw the surveillance video, she watched DelFratte walk out of the emergency room with a bloody, 4-inch knife in one hand and the cup of coffee she had given him in the other.

In 2014, DelFratte was sentenced to 20 years in prison after facing charges of attempted homicide and aggravated assault. He is up for parole in three years.

One scene etched in Clark’s memory is DelFratte’s face inches from her own just before he yanked the knife out of her neck: “I still remember that smile, that smirky smile.”

RELEARNING A CRAFT

“One of my fears as this was happening was how am I going to paint again?” Clark said.

Because blood loss was significant, doctors feared brain damage and seizures. Clark said she got off with an impaired left arm.

“I’m very lucky. God was with me,” she said. “So many people are worse off than I am. I’m blessed.”

Clark still can’t raise her left hand to her head. She lost her sense of touch in that hand and can’t hold anything for very long. While she can’t feel whatever she’s touching, her hand constantly has that “pins-and-needles” sensation of her hand being asleep.

She’s right-handed, but both hands come into play for her painting, especially for a mural artist who needs to climb ladders and hold tools.

“Painting big walls is out of the question now. I have to do smaller things,” Clark said.

She has managed at least one wall that was brought to her in panels, which she was able to mount onto devices her husband built to hold them in place while she painted.

“It’s good to be back painting again. For a couple of years, I couldn’t do anything,” she said.

COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERISM

Two major community service projects occupy Clark’s time these days.

She and the rest of the Harding Park Meeting House Committee are seeking sponsors for a series of painted statues of eagles. The eagle is the mascot of Hubbard High School.

“In 2007, I was one of the 25 chosen artists to design and paint a Goddess of Speed statue in Trumbull County. My statue was purchased by the National Packard Museum and resides there alongside the Goddess of Speed signed by Jay Leno,” she said.

“The Flight of the Eagles project was inspired by this project,” she said.

She helped paint the first one, titled “Eagles in Literature,” which roosts in the entryway of the Hubbard Public Library. The next sponsored eagle will be designed and painted this fall by students of Hubbard High School.

“We are hoping to get enough sponsors to also have one done by the middle school students,” she said.

Sponsorships will help build an “aesthetically pleasing structure for uses including social, cultural and educational events” in Harding Park.

The committee also runs the annual Taste of Hubbard, which features more than 20 local restaurants offering their cuisine in one place. That fundraiser for the planned meeting house is set for Sept. 29 this year.

Clark said her volunteer work and a return to artwork keep her motivated.

“I hope to continue. I love doing all this stuff,” she said.

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