Miami artist Gary Traczyk and his long-time friend Barbara, a breast cancer survivor.
Miami sculptor and firefighter Gary Traczyk has created his stainless steel art for a host of causes since the start of his career. But breast cancer has long been an especially personal issue for the artist.
It began about 20 years ago, when the officer Traczyk worked with at a fire department in Fort Lauderdale lost his wife to the disease. The artist instinctively took to the studio to create a gift that he hoped would assure his friend he was not grieving alone.
During the visceral process of creating the work – cutting, grinding, sanding, bending, polishing and painting bars of stainless steel – the artist carved out his own time and space to internalize and comprehend the loss.
What emerged was a unique interpretation of the famed pink ribbon – reaching skyward in an uplifting, hopeful spiral, painted a symbolic pink on the exterior while maintaining the artist’s signature mirror-finish polish on the interior.
“When you see the pink, it will remind you of those who have fought or are fighting the disease. When you see the polished stainless steel interior, you see a reflection of yourself,” Traczyk says of these sculptures. “You see yourself in the art.”
His friend was heartened to receive the piece, and Traczyk felt he had found a way to comfort someone when words are inadequate. “We all give in different ways. We all can help,” Traczyk says.
Then, in 2005, he met a woman named Barbara who would eventually also be affected by breast cancer. The two connected at an art show in Connecticut where Traczyk was exhibiting his kinetic stainless steel sculptures.
“Her daughter, who was a teenager at the time, liked my work and told her mother she wouldn’t leave my booth until they bought a piece,” Traczyk laughs. “And so she did buy one.”
He and Barbara became fast friends. She and her husband even invited Traczyk to stay at their Connecticut home when he was exhibiting in New York. Over the years, she showed up to support Traczyk at multiple art shows on the West Coast, in the Midwest — all across the country.
Then, about four years ago, Barbara was diagnosed with breast cancer. “When she told me, it hit me very hard,” Traczyk said.
Before she began treatment, Traczyk sent her and her family a Pink Ribbon stainless steel sculpture as a sign of his emotional support.
“It felt like the least I could do. But she and her husband just broke down when they got it,” Traczyk says. “You just kind of feel helpless in a situation like that. But at the same time, it felt like an honor and a privilege to create the sculpture for her.”
Barbara underwent surgery in October 2016 and is living cancer free.
Traczyk has presented these hope-inspiring sculptures – each of them uniquely hand-crafted – to additional colleagues and survivors at the fire department; to a Miami middle school art teacher and survivor he taught alongside through an artist volunteer program; and to the Mammography Art Initiative at Florida International University.
“I love mine and look at it daily. It is the first thing I see when I open my eyes each day! Reminds me of how special you are and that each day is a gift. Thank you old friend!” — Shawny, breast cancer survivor
“The people I know who have battled this illness, I may not see them every day, but they are always in my thoughts,” Traczyk says. “The thoughts are always there.”
Gary Traczyk is an artist and firefighter who lives and works in South Florida. His work has been featured in shows across the U.S. and internationally, including Art Basel Miami Arts Week, Art Hamptons in New York, SOFA Chicago, Art San Diego, Toronto Art Expo, Beverly Hills Art Show and
Miami International Art Fair, among others.
He creates one-of-a-kind commissioned works for clients throughout the United States. Contact him here.