It was a cold and rainy morning. There was no sunshine. There were no colors. Everything was gray and lifeless. Tom Pyrzewski sat at his desk in a hooded Detroit sweatshirt waiting for the coffee to kick in. His office was dark and gray. There were no colors.

He stood up and sauntered over to the Art Gallery across the hall in the Art Building. The gallery was warm and inviting. There was light. Tints of red, shades of green and hues of blue swirled around him and the other visitors. He smiled. The short, stiff hairs growing along his chin and around his mouth shifted upward. His intuition led him here.

“What inspires me is the process of creating art,” Pyrzewski said. “Earlier when I was a student, I was trying to figure out what I’m making, why I’m making it and an explanation that tells people what it is. I started to realize that it’s about the process. Intuition and good energy — that’s what inspires my work.”

Pyrzewski, 33, graduated from the College for Creative Studies with a bachelor’s degree of fine arts in digital cinema and a master of fine arts in sculpture from Wayne State. As WSU’s interim director of galleries, he works alongside Gallery Preparator Rose Rivard and handles art shows at the Art Gallery and the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery.

“It’s different working with Tom because we work with a lot of intuition especially when we’re working on the layout of an exhibit. His intention in his own work has a lot to do with his intuition, too, and letting the spiritual world and energy come through,” Rivard said.

Crista Broughton, a recent WSU graduate who majored in photography, was also inspired by Pyrzewski’s unique work.

“My senior year, I worked at the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery and that’s when I first met Tom,” Broughton said. “I was especially intrigued by his massive sculptures. He uses very industriallooking, man-made materials and forms them together to make such overwhelmingly large, beautiful and organic forms.”

Pyrzewski’s sculptures are all about the process and combining basic composition, line and proportion. He uses several found and donated materials — whether human-made or natural — and allows the materials to build and create the art. He starts with a foundation that builds the skeletal structure, adds muscle and foam rubber to give the form volume and applies paint and cloth for texture.

“When I’m putting these things together I ask, “What was this used for?” and “Where did this come from?” or “Who used this?” Pyrzewski said.

The history of the materials inspires his intuition to create the final form. The finished sculptures juxtapose ideas of beauty with those that are grotesque.

“In the end, I look at my sculptures as a collaboration between the materials and the people who donated the materials. In a way, I feel like I don’t even make them. The third part of the sculpture, to finish it, is to let the viewer solve it,” Pyrzewski said.

His sculptures have been called everything from alien to fecal matter, but Pyrzewski welcomes these different insights.

“That’s what is important about abstract art — the viewer gets to perceive it based on their personal history,” Pyrzewski said.

Pyrzewski, who has dabbled in every art medium, has also collaborated with several artists around the Metro Detroit area. Pyrzewski met Zack Ostrowski, now an associate professor at DePaul University, in 1999 when they both had the same idea — to build a website.

“I have worked closely with Tom on a variety of projects over the past 10 years,” said Ostrowski, who is also co-founder of SuperiorBelly.com, a website showcasing artistic endeavors, with Pyrzewski. “Projects that have involved fireworks, shin pads, wigs, opera singers, induced vomiting, Christmas decorations, mobile-heavy metal bands, physical endurance, heavy lifting, strange locations, late nights and early mornings, telepathic communication and usually some sort of injury. In short, I have had some of the best times of my life collaborating with Tom.”

Fellow SuperiorBelly artist and hip-hop singer Blair French has also worked with Pyrzewski on a performance art piece and, like Pyrzewski, is interested in losing the ego and focusing on the art process.

“We were in the woods going back and forth between a cabin where we slept and a barn where we practiced,” French said. “We built props and let ideas flap around like birds with messages attached to the feet. Tom laid out the foundation and let us run loose. We worked very in tune, as I’m sure he was very thoughtful on his choice of members. He went with his heart and shared an experience with us that was loving, hurtful, scary, fun and all with focused emotions.”

As Pyrzewski allows his energy and the history of the materials to create the art, he leaves Detroit with something meaningful and perhaps something much larger than the city itself.

“My process is intuitive. It’s a higher level of consciousness. I feel like I’m just the vehicle. I’m just doing what I’m almost told to do,” Pyrzewski said.