Dusty Folwarczny is an “object maker”. Raised in Missouri just north of St. Louis she grew up on a large plot of land surrounded by a lake, hills, and woods; providing an early connection with nature and organic forms. As an artist she attempts to explore the tension between heavy metal and gravity and, in many of her pieces, exposes the raw aesthetic of rust.

Dusty attended Truman State University and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture. She currently resides in Chicago and her work can be found in both private and corporate collections. Recently, Ms. Folwarczny was selected a member of the board of Chicago Sculpture International, an affiliate chapter of International Sculpture Center.

Neoteric Art: You operate in a genre requiring, not only passion, but strength, fire/heat and tools many visual artists have no relationship with. What brought you to this medium and how do you wrestle with it?

Dusty Folwarczny: Simply put, I grew up around steel. My pops owns a pipe and steel company back home and the material made its way into my subconscious. I can remember going to the steel yard after school and searching for bunnies hiding among all the rusty pipe. I remember getting a piece of scrap pipe and telling my dad how I thought it would make a really pretty vase for the wild flowers I picked if it had a bottom. I am a very family oriented person and my way of being part of the family business is using the scrap from Dad’s business and transforming it into public art.

As a sculptor, I am attracted to the the strength and mass of steel. If you are sculpting with steel you mean business and have to be dedicated to the material and respect its properties. I love the aesthetic of rust – the beautiful oranges and browns all swirling together to form a protective coating. This protective property humanizes the steel for me and gives it a more of a personality. We all wear our protective coating from time to time don’t we? But despite its mass, I find ways to make the steel look light and airy. I want to show that it too can be delicate and sometimes lyrical (remember those bunnies a flowers I talked about). This is sort of the opposite from how people react when that discover I am a steel sculptor, “Well, wait…so you weld that yourself?!” I get that a lot.

The steel does present several challenges for me to work with. First off, I’m not Hercules and have to work “smart” in order to stay safe while I’m schlepping the steel around my studio. My tools enable me to work in a medium that requires a lot of support. My work is directly dependent upon my gantry, my grinder, and my welder I affectionately call Elmer (because it is like my glue for the metal). Steel doesn’t allow you to be quite as impulsive as maybe some other mediums do. It makes you think. I really appreciate that. It’s a material I will continue to learn about and grow as an artist while I find new ways to manipulate its form.

I think a lot about energy when I designing a sculpture or just walking down the street. When I am welding, I am focused on the metals joining and becoming stronger together as one structure. The permanence of my work is something that is attractive to me and also very intimidating. I’m making something at 30 years old that will be around well after I have left this earth and how can I make it something that might help to define me and my culture while still evoking a feelings toward it from someone who I don’t know?

A large part of why I make art is to share it with the public and to bring it outside of museums and galleries that can be intimidating. I want my art to be approachable and endearing to the public. What is interesting about this is that I don’t really hear back from the public on how they feel about my work. Recently a friend of mine relayed a story about his friends who walk by my sculpture, Position, frequently and how much they enjoy seeing it. This simple piece of feedback from these folks I don’t know is so exciting to me. It worked! The sculpture prompted a dialogue that actually made it’s way back to me. I love that. And I love being a sculptor!

Compiled by Jeffery McNary

Link to the article on www.neotericart.com

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A Few Words Concerning "Position"

by James Arrigo

 There is an oasis on the near North side of Chicago in the Old Town neighborhood, at the end of Wisconsin, where it intersects with Mohawk. After being desensitized by the architectural Frankensteins of the nouveau-riche that assault you for blocks from the east, or the soul destroying public housing that leads to it from the west, you come across a small clearing (you can’t call it a park, there isn’t as much as a bench here.) This long space with a brick walkway lined by trees is the yearlong home of “Position,” a remarkable sculpture by Dusty Folwarczny; one of twenty sculptures that make up the Lakefront Sculpture Exhibit. This space is an oasis of order over chaos, where you can’t help but stop and drink in what you find.

 The first impression of “Position” is that of the classic monolith on a pedestal, but take a closer look. It stands over seven feet tall; made of steel and painted black so that in the bright sun it takes on an almost copper sheen. Dusty, like David Smith and Sir Anthony Caro, works primarily in recycled steel, and simple shapes. “Position” is comprised of seven large cylinders stacked one on top of the other. The middle cylinder is turned ninety degrees to those above and below. Maybe it’s the way the cylinders are placed, the appearance that with one good push they could go over like building blocks, or the way the middle cylinder is set on its side, letting you look through the piece, the thinness of the steel, whatever optical illusion is at play, “Position” feels much lighter than it’s 800 lbs.

 Residing on this small sliver of urban walkway which connects two residential streets; it is flanked on one side by the classic red brick of an old Victorian structure and, more strikingly, on the other side by a house of modern design. The fat black horizontals of the sculpture pop against the long orange and burnt red slats of the home. The dark bay of windows that rise up two-stories is picked up by the sculpture and provide it with lift. Trees planted along either edge of the walk add a natural element and soften the space.

 Draw closer and you notice the vertical weld lines of “Position” providing a counterpoint to the strong horizontals. Gaze up into the core and you’ll see that the inside has not been fully painted. As the work ages rust will begin forming from the inside out giving the piece another fascinating contrast; I look forward to the effect of the changing seasons.

 It’s my personal belief that a work of art, once it leaves the artist’s hands and is put into the public space, belongs to those who experience it, and as such can be whatever the viewer wants it to be. Dusty has said that this piece represents her place within her family. To me, it’s a reaction to the modern McMansions lining our gentrified city streets with their out of place interpretations of classical elements; “Position” is a column ripped apart, reformed, and remade so that it now stands as something infinitely more dignified.