News. Stories. Events.
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. He has created numerous sculptures for friends who have been touched by the disease over the past two decades, as well as for the Mammography Art Initiative from Florida International University.
Last week, we began our exploration of the process Miami sculptor Gary Traczyk used to create a towering stainless steel wall sculpture for a commercial building on South Beach. (If you need a refresher, check out Part I here.)
When we left off, Traczyk had just wrapped up cutting, welding, grinding, sanding and polishing dozens of stainless steel tubes in various sizes.
Although the Miami artist admits that the ideas for many of his pieces have occurred to him suddenly – even effortlessly – making them real is a completely different story. The process involves earsplitting, spark-inducing circular saws, a procession of grinding wheels and sandpaper grits, white hot flames and high velocity water jets, not to mention the physical exertion of bending steel with his body.
