SheWalksSoftly

Erika Sanada creates bizarre, dreamy creatures, whose soft pastel colors belie the unsettling nature of their physical anomalies.

The texture of their skin appears almost human, as blank white eyes stare out from their loneliness and suffering (though certainly not all of her creations are tortured; some are simply keeping each other company in serene, mutual strangeness).

From the artist statement:
My work reflects the weird and the creepy; I am fascinated with the dark side. “Odd Things” is my current body of work and I use ceramic for making bizarre creatures. They have extra body parts such as multiple arms, legs, teeth and ears. These are how I express my sensitive mind. There are two reasons I create misshapen and abnormal work. One is my bitter childhood and the second is my constant anxieties.

I have had an anxious personality since I was a child. I worry about everything, even tiny things. Anxiety drags my mind to the dark side, which is more powerful and intense than my bright side. Sometimes I can’t move forward because I am emotionally paralyzed. I decided to go face-to-face with my anxieties by creating irregular and eerie creatures representing my dark side. As a result, these creatures show my twisted mind as I try to overcome anxiety through my creation.

While I hate to hear of a fellow human being struggling with anxiety, creativity can be an intensely positive channel. Amazing work, Erica!

Erika Sanada

This entry was posted on January 19, 2015 at 5:42 pm and is filed under sculpture with tags sculpture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.