Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano (Benny) is my great-great uncle. He is also a famous artist who was born in 1898 and died in 1970. He migrated to America from Italy when he was three years old. He moved to San Francisco, California in 1915, which is where most of his sculptures are.

Benny is my hero because when I traveled to San Francisco and looked at his sculptures, I was in awe at the fact that I was related to someone so famous. His art inspired me to become more artistic.

I think my hero influenced his community when he was alive because he taught at UC-Berkeley and the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. He didn't agree with the traditional way of teaching. Instead, Benny taught the new age of art.

If I could speak to Benny, I would tell him how his art inspired me and how honored I am to be related to him. If I were to be a hero, I would want to be a bass guitar player in a famous band and give money to charities. If that doesn't happen--which it probably won't--I want to be an art teacher and inspire students.

Benny is famous for his sculptures, but he also created poems, drawings, prints, paintings, and mosaics. He traveled all around the world; to New York, France, Italy, China, Cambodia, and Malaysia. While he was in China, Benny learned the Chinese porcelain glazing technique, which he applied to his terracotta sculpture. Benny married Virginia Howard in 1925. This was also the year Benny opened his first gallery.

Benny paved the road for new age art. He was a sculptor, a world traveler, and a professor of art. Benny has been called a dreamer and a man of action because of his free spirit. He was a great artist; a statement told through his still appreciated and displayed art.