The Antigo Visual Arts Artist of the Month for October is Ray Hrovat.
Ray’s father was a wood carver who taught classes in carving and made new carvings and repaired older carvings for Circus World in Baraboo. They’d deliver the work to him, then he’d make the repairs and send them back. Ray was constantly drawing with pencils and magic markers for his grade school newspaper in West Allis. So when his dad would display his carvings in art shows, Ray would display his drawings besides his dad’s works. They were both members of Hobbies Unlimited, group of artists in the Milwaukee area.
Ray took art classes in high school, but quit drawing for several years when he realized he had to do something to pay the bills. He worked as an assembler for GE Hotpoint until they closed the factory in 1992. That’s when he moved to Antigo, studied welding at NTC, and worked as a welder for a while. But he didn’t care for the working environment, so he quit and started a home handyman business.
In 2009, Ray moved back to the Milwaukee area to take care of his elderly father. He started drawing again in 2015, joined the Milwaukee Sketch Club in 2023 where he worked with live models, plein air painting, and a variety of mediums, including oils, acrylics, water colors, charcoal, and pencil. He moved back to Antigo permanently in 2025 to be near his two sons and currently leads an Open Sketch workshop at the AVA Art Center at their Aspen Village studio on Fridays from 9:00 to 11:00 AM.
