Ray Villafane
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Ray Anthony Villafane(March 5, 1969) is an multi-talented artist located in Arizona who is most notable for his pumpkin carvings of American pop culture figures.
Early Life and Career
Ray was born in Queens, New York, to Reinaldo Villafane and Virginia (Guzman)Villafane and was raised on Long Island. He has three siblings, two sisters, and one brother. Ray graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1991. In addition to his interest in his own art, Ray has also showed worked with children who are interested in art. From 1993 to 2006 Ray was an art teacher in Bellaire, Michigan for kindergarten through twelfth grade students. During his teaching career, Ray began "dabbling" in pumpkin sculpting as a project with his students. After several requests from students parent Ray started offering them to hotels and restaurants in the area making it his fall hobby for several years.
Changing Careers
In 2003 Ray decided to contact a former SVA classmate who he had known to be working for Disney as an animator. Upon speaking with him, he learned that the friend was doing sculpting for Disney instead. Ray later flew to New York to become more familiar with his friends works.
Ray's first "practice" sculpture actually became his first professional sculpture. In 2004, Ray sculpted a Logan version of the Marvel character Wolverine. He had been visiting online sculpting forums for tips and had posted his work in progress to receive feedback from other sculptors. The piece caught the attention of the popular sculpting icon Randy Bowen of Bowen Designs. He contacted Ray and offered to produce his statue. Between 2004 and 2005, Ray went on to sculpt several other statues for Bowen Designs including other Marvel characters such as Sabertooth, the companion piece to his Logan, Magneto, and The Punisher.
DC Comics
After doing a commissioned piece for DC Comics toy division DC Direct, Ray was offered a two year exclusive contract with DC in 2006. He renewed his contract in 2008 for another two years. He has sculpted countless action figures and collectible statues over the years.
Pumpkins
In 2007 Ray was contacted by High Noon Entertainment and asked to participate in the Food Network's Challenge Show for Extreme Pumpkins. Ray competed against 3 other professional pumpkin sculptors and swept all three rounds taking home the grand prize. The Food Network contacted Ray again in 2009 to come back to the show and defend his title. The first show, which aired in 2008, opened yet another door for Ray to expand his talents. Ray was also the grand prize winner for the Outrageous Pumpkin Challenge II. One of Ray's most notable works was the carving of the worlds biggest pumpkin to resemble zombies.[1]
Sandsculpting
After seeing him compete on the Food Network Challenge Show, Ray was contacted by a professional sand sculpting company and invited to Jesolo, Italy to take part in their yearly sand sculpting project for the holidays. Though Ray had never sculpted in sand, he took the opportunity that was offered. In November 2008, Ray traveled to Jesolo and created his first sand sculptures. He did so exceptional, that he was invited back the following summer where he participated in bringing "Dante's Inferno" to the beach and was given the most pivotal sculpture of the show. A trip to Russia followed to sand sculpt at their Victory Day celebration.
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