Are there projects you want to talk about that you are working on now?
For the last few years I have been working with oil painting – pictures of events and people that I have personally had the experience of getting to know a little about their lives.
My work can be seen here: https://www.raysokolowski.com.
After graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and working briefly as a glassware designer you joined the Navy in their submarine service – what was behind your desire to do so?
Before I joined the U.S. Navy in service to our national defense, I dated one girl through high school plus academy studies and then through art school, and we planned on getting married. But on her mother’s insistence, she called the wedding off because her mother told her that I would not be able to support her in the manner she would be happy with. I was devastated and I decided to leave my job and seek world adventure. Where else would a just turned 21 year-old go but to join the service? After some thought I decided to join the French foreign legion. I needed to clear this with our government at the Federal Building in Pittsburgh. I was talked out of this and instead encouraged to join the US Submarine Service for “An adventure of a lifetime” and by God, this was true. It was during the Vietnam War era and I had adventures one would never forget – it was like living in a Hollywood movie.
Was it difficult acclimating to civilian life as an artist after the Navy?
Not at all. In the Navy, I was the unofficial artist and had an opportunity to put my artistic ability to use by painting a blood shot eye on the submarine air intake snorkel. When we went out to sea, the captain looked through the periscope to check the snorkel apparatus and he was very surprised to see a giant blood shot eye looking back at him. When my enlistment was up, my captain asked me to stay on because he felt that I contributed to the good morale of the “boat” – the term submariners gave to a submarine. I declined and my next move after leaving the Navy was to work for a display company that specialized is high end store window displays. It was here that I learned metal welding and design and construct sculpture that was shipped all over the country and was also seen here in Pittsburgh.
Who has influenced you most as an artist and how?
My painting teacher in art school greatly influenced me. He told me that I was so good at painting that I would be painting in salons. He was right – the first art job I had was hand lettering the saloon name over the door and window of a bar in downtown Pittsburgh. As it happened, my teacher, who was an immigrant from Russia, spoke with a strong accent and I misunderstood him when he said “salon”, and not “saloon”. My saloon sign was created so expertly that the sign painter union threatened to picket the bar until they learned I was still in art school!
How do you and your wife, artist Kathy Rooney, push each other artistically?
We both share a love of art and we support and encourage each other to follow our passion. My first wife hated art and painted over the wall mural I created on our dining room wall.
How has Pittsburgh influenced you as an artist?
Big time! I studied and worked in and with art all my life here in Pittsburgh which has had a lasting influence of what stays in my head until I release the impression and put it to canvas. I paint what I know or have experienced.
How did working at the Carnegie Museum of Art help you as well as an artist?
The owner of the exhibit display house where I worked for 12 years passed away with no heirs and the business was dissolved. At that time I saw an ad in the paper for an opening at the Carnegie Museum of Art workshop, which included hand lettering on the gallery walls, including show titles plus handling and framing of great artworks. It was amazing to be able to study great works of art first hand and up close and, to top it off, with the information provided by curatorial and conservation staff. And they paid me to do this! I also got to work with world recognized artists when they came to install their works. I did this for 25 years.
You sculpt and paint – is there a preference and how do you master both?
I can only concentrate on doing one art discipline at a time. Sculpting and painting take different mindsets and you must dedicate your life to this hard work that requires many disciplines. Here is why being married to an artist who is there to help in the day-to-day events really matters. I hope that she sees that I bring the same to the table for her and her art.
Is there a particular theme/themes you want most to convey in your art. Why?
Yes, I put people in the pictures I paint because I view a painting without people as lifeless, just as in a theater with a beautiful set design is useless without the actor or actor’s performance – whether that is a portrayal of the feelings of joy or sorrow that we can relate too. As another example, Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper without Jesus and the apostles would just be a table.
I know you have art displayed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a full-size treatment of the Hope Harvey Team Sculpture that was acquired by the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Acrisure Stadium Hall of Fame Museum. Are sports an inspiration for you?
Yes, I have displayed my sculpture at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and currently the Pittsburgh Steelers have purchased a sculpture of 23 figures about 18” tall on average, give or take – since no two people are the same in height. This team was called “The Hope Harvey Football Club” and it was the first team that Art Rooney formed, owned and played on as a quarterback. This was the 1923 season on Pittsburgh’s North Side at Phipps Field, next to the famed Exposition Park that is on the same site where Three Rivers Stadium stood. This sculpted team, 23 figures created in Hydrostone, can be seen that the Acrisure Stadium Hall of Honor Museum.
Any sports memories that stand out most to you – if any?
Yes, when the Steelers won their first Super Bowl. I also remember a Steelers game as a student in the high school marching band playing the tuba at half time in the rain on a mud soaked field at Pitt Stadium. The mud pulled my shoe off in mid-stride and I wasn’t able to retrieve it because it was stuck in the mud until we marched off the field.
However, the Steelers lost that day.
What are your thoughts on the city’s art culture and how it’s changed over the years?
For a relatively small city today with a much smaller population we have the second largest group of extremely talented illustrators, The Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators, or “PSI” at 147 members now in it’s 30th year here in Pittsburgh, second only to the Society of Illustrators, New York. The
Pittsburgh art culture rocks fast and loud!
When you have some time, and you will need that, in order to see what is offered at PSI’s exhibition, My America: An Illustrated Experience celebrating America’s 250th anniversary at Senator John Heinz History Center (https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/) on the fifth floor.
When you walk off the elevator, just go straight and you will be very happy you took some time to see a wonderful show of art created by Pittsburgh artists about what America means to them.