{ Artists Wanted } Please vote for my work!

Today, on a whim I entered a competition for { Artists Wanted }

Below is the call. Check out the judges!

"You are invited to participate in "The Power of Self" an international competition celebrating the vitality of self portraiture. A panel of judges including actor Steve Buscemi, director Chris Weitz, Guggenheim curator Helen Hsu and Flavorpill founder Sascha Lewis will award one artist a package of incredible prizes including six months of free living at The Edge in New York City or $7007 in cash. The most popular portfolio as voted by the public will also receive $1,000 cash. Your images have power. Now is your moment to reveal them to the world. "

I gave it a shot and we shall see what the judges think! You can help though because there is a Peaople's Choice Award! Here is what happens if I win: 

 

"The People's Choice winner will be decided by the rating your portfolio receives from your friends, family and the general public. Gawker Artists will award one winner a publicity push with hundreds of thousands of visits acrosss a network of dozens of website, plus $1,000 cash." 

 

SO,  PUH-LEASE take a moment, click on this link: http://www.artistswanted.org/dustyfolwarczny and vote for me by clicking on how many stars youwant to give me. And you can vote once a day! Please share with your friends on Facebook, Myspace, twitter etc!

 

I would so appreciate you helping me to spread the word to get folks to vote! If I win this I will give half to charity. 

 

Thank you kindly!

~dusty

 

 

January is application, sculpture, proposal and maquette time!

This past week I had a scribing business trip to Minneapolis and got the pleasure of working with two amazing scribes. I learned a lot from them and hope to work with them again very soon. Together with Chris http://christopher-fuller.com/ as our lead, we created a 7' tall x 15' wide graphic capture of the workshop. I also worked with Victoria, who is also a filmmaker when she is not scribing http://www.linkedin.com/in/vgarza. It was really a great team and experience!

As soon as I got home Thursday afternoon I began to work on one of the many exhibition applications I need to complete before the month is over. Here is a link to the application I sent off yesterday for Art In Public Places Knoxville http://www.dogwoodarts.com/art_public.html.

I have three other major deadlines coming up with www.socratessculpturepark.org,  Sculpture Invasion 2010 at http://www.oakton.edu/index.php,  Lakefront Sculpture Exhibit: http://www.chicagolse.org/.

For the one of the exhibits, I will be proposing to exhibit this sculpture. I will make it regardless of if it is right for one of the exhibits. I am pretty excited to get started on it. Let me know what you think!

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Now onto the rusty stuff:

This sculpture, Hole, I made a couple years ago and since then, I have been wanting to make another one similar to it. I have been a pack rat about saving the square and rectangular pieces that I need to make another one. This piece of scrap is not generated as fast as many of the other circular forms I work with, so it has taken two years.

This series of work is an exploration of gravity and mass. I want to make the steel look light and almost like it is floating. I do this in a lot of my sculpture. This series is also special to me because you really get to see what the elements have done to the steel scrap that has been outside exposed to all of Mother Nature, grease and limestone gravel. I think the result is beautiful in nature and color. It is sort of a metaphor for the aging process that all humans go through. Rust is a protective coating. We all have a protective coating that is ever changing based on what we go through in life. I think this next square sculpture I am building has the benefit of my subconscious thinking about it for two years and I have a better understanding of why I am compelled to make this a series. Maybe I only will make one every two years or so, but with each new one I will learn more about what I am doing and why.

The good news is I don't expect anyone to know that when they look at it. It is what I am thinking about in the studio when I am welding, arranging, grinding and setting up a weld. If you like the lightness of the forms, cool. If not, that is also cool.

I got started on the new square-ish sculpture on last day of 2009 and have been working with it for the last couple weeks. Here are some photos of the process.

The edges of these square plate are cut with a torch and have a very raw edge (which I love!). In order to make a clean weld, i sometimes have to grind a the edge so that it meets the other square piece as close to perpendicular as my eyes can make it. 

Bikers, Website and the Mart

I'm one week into this new year and can already tell a big difference in my approach to my work and my approach to getting things done...for the better. I have had three important meetings this week so far. One to collect information from a Chicago based bike racing team, one to give information to the gentleman who I am bartering with (website redesign for a painting) and one with a self-motivated group of sculptors who are requesting exhibition space during two huge events, Art Chicago and Neocon, at the Merchandise Mart here in town.

All three went very well and as soon as the next steps fall into place I will expand more on these. We have an audience with the powers that be at the Mart next week to present our proposal to all the teams. Cross your fingers. Mark will be sending me his mock ups of my new site/pages within the week for me to critique. Cross your fingers. I have to present more details of my proposal about creating artistic bike racks for the 1st Ward next week. Cross your fingers.

Back in the studio I am busy making stuff to enter into many different competitions for the Spring. I am about halfway finished with another new sculpture and hope to get more work done on that this weekend. I have (and am happy with) a sketch for what I want to enter into the CSI Oakton Exhibit. You don't need to cross your fingers for this, I have control of this situation! It's going to be good.

Movin' and shakin' my friends, that's the theme for 2010!

Good and Happy New Year to you all!!

First I'll start with the sappy stuff and then onto the sculpture stuff:

Sappy Stuff: Happy New Decade!

Since I last posted I have spent quality times with families and friends from near and far and once again, I am humbled by how lucky I am to have such wonderful folks in my life. There is no lack of love, laughter, sarcasm, intelligence, goofiness, thoughtful behavior, hunger, talent, rebellious nature or compassion among those I am closest.

Here are a few photos from the Folwarczny Farm Christmas 2009:

Daddy Den and the little beasties begging for the Christmas Eve Ham

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Me and my baby sister Dede

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Mommy Dearest and Brother Den

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White Christmas on Sunnova Beach!

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Little sister, Diddlebug, MiMi and the Christmas tree

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Little sister, Dani in Sydney

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Sculpture Stuff: More Steel!

On my way out of Winfield, I was lucky enough to make a stop at Victor Pipe & Steel for some salvaging of steel. Here are some shots from that:

The first picture is the cutting shed where the giant band saw is that can cut through the pipe. This second piture is the dumpster where they throw out the junk they don't need. This go around there were a bunch of jagged torch cut end pieces of pipe and some cool threaded end pieces with oil writing on them. I love it when I find stuff with writing on it as evidence it has been touched and of the steel's past life. Now you understand why this is one of my favorite dumpsters!

I was also able to get another large ring from West Yard. Thanks to Preston for helping me put it in my car and thanks to Victor Pipe for more materials!

A bit more on the sappy:

As I start this year anew, I am grateful for the whirlwind roller coaster of this first decade and bursting with enthusiastic anticipation for what the "double digits" will bring. January is already bursting with opportunity and I can't wait to get my hands dirty in the studio!

Oh, and keep your fingers crossed about some bike racks. More on that later.