Born and raised in Pittsburgh, artist Ray Sokolowski lived many lives to bring him to where he is today. After graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1963, Ray immediately landed a job as a designer. After just six months, though, he chose to leave his job and enter the Navy, where he entered the submarine service and patrolled the coast of the United States. After returning to dry land in ‘66, Ray found a job as a production team artisan where he would assist in sculpting statues, building window displays, and installing large-scale projects such as the sculpted tree at the Tree of Life Synagogue. Soon after, he found a job at the Carnegie Museum of Art as an Installation Specialist. There, he would mat, frame, install, and mount artworks for 24 years. Ray was also responsible for hand-lettering all exhibition wall texts before it was a job for machines. Periodically, Ray was offered the job of Installation Supervisor, but he always turned it down. “I didn’t want to do the paperwork and all that, I needed to be hands-on,” he explains. Everyday, all the teams at the Carnegie Museum would take lunch in the cafeteria. It was there that Ray met Ed Rengers, a Stationary Engineer. For two decades the two would share conversations, but it wouldn’t be until a spontaneous trip to Sewickley in 2023 that his world would come full circle and he would officially meet Ed’s son, Mark. Outside of work, Ray would invest his time in sculpting and painting. Needing to switch up his life again, Ray retired from the Carnegie Museum and took up painting full time. Years of working with famous artworks greatly inspired his artmaking technique, which continues to transform with each painting he makes. When asked to describe his painting style, he says, “I evolve. I don’t want to be static.” Never interested in realism, Ray’s paintings evoke happiness and movement with their flowing brushstrokes and whimsical figures. Many of his paintings are representations of personal memories, some of which overlap with Pittsburgh history. His wife, Kathy Rooney, once showed him a family photograph and he was infatuated. The black and white photo of a group of men, 23 to be exact, inspired Ray to go forth with a huge sculpture project that would eventually place him in the history books: The Hope Harvey Football Club of 1923. “I always wondered what it would be like to have been there with those men,” Ray says, talking about the photograph. Hand carving and casting the 23 figures gave Ray a unique, intimate insight into the Hope Harvey team, as if he was part of the team himself. Ray’s positive outlook on life and appreciation for all things art can be summed up in one statement: “Everything you see in this world, there is an artist behind it. Everything is art.” Ray Sokolowski’s work has been displayed at The Heinz History Center, Saint Bonaventure University in New York, he Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Point Park University, Ryan Arts Center, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His work is in numerous private collections, including Art Rooney, Jr. and Hollywood film producer Jimmy Miller. Ray is a dedicated full time artist and a business partner with his illustrator wife, Kathy Rooney. Together they formed Rooney and Ray Arts, Inc. to satisfy the art needs of corporations looking for inspirational, visual branding. Read Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's article by Gene Collier. View Ray Sokolowski's new website here.