Music professor’s ink drawings on display

Kirkwood Train Station is currently housing the works of Gary Gackstatter, the Instrumental Music teacher at STLCC-Meramec.

One of Gackstatter’s ink and pen drawings featured in the Kirkwood Train Station. | COURTNEY STARK

Courtney Stark
– Staff Photographer –  

Follow the train tracks that cross Geyer Road to the old Kirkwood Train Station.

The station is still in use and the trains still rolls by on occasion; it also serves as a small art gallery for local artists and is currently housing the works of Gary Gackstatter, the Instrumental Music teacher at STLCC-Meramec.

The work he has on display are labor-intensive ink and pen drawings, which takes up to two hours per square inch to complete according to Gackstatter.

Each image is highly detailed, almost as if they were photographs of the subject. These works have a certain character that cannot be captured by a camera.

“I think these things have a spirit inside of them that talks to me,” said Gackstatter.

He says he believes that the objects he draws deserve the amount of time that he spends on them as well as the effort it takes for each print.

Along with the Kirkwood Train Station, Gackstatter’s work is also currently showing at the Ethical Society of St.Louis on Clayton Rd.