Anthony (Tony) Woidyla
Graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1959 with a BFA in Sculpture. While attending the school, he worked the second shift in the new products laboratory at US Rubber Company in Providence. Married in 1957, he and his wife subsequently moved to a rural property that they purchased in Foster, RI in 1959 which they contemporised, and where they brought up two daughters.
Anthony earned his living in the graphic arts industry working for advertising agencies as a studio manager, production manager, and also as advertising manager for a major drugstore chain. In 1972 he began his own business as Graphic Workshop Inc. and successfully continued until retiring in 2001.
During this period he also applied himself to several civic efforts; chairman of the Democratic Town Committee and Tax Assessor for the Town of Foster, co-chairman of the Ponagansett Regional High School Building Committee, and member of both the Foster and Ponagansett School Committees.
Upon retiring in 2001, Anthony turned to sculpting and painting in his studio in Foster. He developed a style of solid, formal forms, elegant linearity, and clearly defined volumes in a variety of materials, both carved and molded. Many of his sculpted pieces are derivations from mythology and the abstract qualities of symbolism expressed as simplified smooth surfaces. His paintings over shallow coin reliefs of flowers and his landscapes of simplified color compositions are expressions of everyday peaceful observations.
Having begun his eighth decade, Anthony continues working in his studio on a daily basis. He also enjoys gardening, maintaining the landscaped property, perusing the internet, and reading classic and contemporary authors.
