User:Chowin

Joe Kowalczyk (Ko-val-chick) modern sculptor who work primarily in clay., illustrator and kiln technician who lives in the California Bay area.

It was just north of Chicago in Niles, Illinois where Joe spent his adolescence developing his passion for drawing. In high school nothing was more exciting than ceramic sculpture week and needless to say, the discovery of ceramics itself. At the time ceramics seemed impractical and incapable of being practiced at home. Inevitably he turned his attention back towards drawing and music. Early in junior college Joe decided not to become a computer programmer after realizing his true love for sculpting and rediscovering the ways of the ceramic sculpture. Nothing has been the same since.

In Spring of 2006, after three years of formative training under Arthur Gonzalez, Craig Petey, John deFazio, and John Toki, he received his BFA from the California College of the Arts (formerly The California College of Arts and Crafts). Now he's currently developing his body of work in the California Bay Area with his friends and fellow studio mates, The Firehouse Collective.

Awards & Accomplishments

- Accepted into CCA's juried Best of Junior Review Show, April 2005

- Has work in various collections.

- Has been published in several Oakton Community College publications including the “OCCurrence” and “Grub Street.”

- 1st place for Best Freehand Cartoon at the Illinois Community College Journalism Association Spring 2004 Conference

- 3rd place for Best Freehand Cartoon at the Illinois Community College Journalism Association Spring 2004 Conference

- Certificate for Outstanding Artwork July 2003 Skokie Illinois Art Guild