Using wet clay as a medium creates an immediate connection with the earth through a sensual touch and forces a personal connection with the subject. Whether the subject is a live model, an inspiration from nature, or a figure of the mind, a closeness develops during the sculpting process...a form emerges and evolves through your hands. Adding detail is a time intensive pleasure that prolongs and deepens that relationship.
Sandra Giunta is a Brooklyn-based self-taught clay sculptor. After a previous career as a Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology and Distance Education, which is seemingly worlds away from the creative endeavors of an artist, she started working in clay. The combination of thought processes and techniques from both worlds, including natural mathematical patterns and endless details, laid the foundations for her art. It is the attention to these hand carved details and patterns that identify Sandra’s work.
Sandra initially focused on figurative sculpting, but while living in Belize, an interest in coral reefs and the impact of global warming led to sculpting corals. A natural progression was to combine figurative work with corals, morphing into her Coralized Series. Natural forms, forces, and textural detailed patterns are an integral part of her art.
Bringing the underwater world above the surface to keep it visible and increase awareness of its precarious balance is a major goal. The possibility that these incredible natural structures and life forms could be destroyed by a 2° rise in ocean temperatures is our reality and we’re losing time for intervention.
In 2022, Sandra began experimenting with fiber art, wet felting with wool and other natural fibers. Again inspirations initially came from the sea but have broadened to include other organic influences. Patterns, textures, and colors found in nature provide such a wide range of possibilities that are translated into her new work.