SANDRA ASKA

Sandra is a storyteller.

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She began illustrating people with photography and painting; but eventually discovered her greatest satisfaction was bringing forth those personae from mud. Her interest is the human form and how emotions are reflected by the way people position their bodies and their gaze. By shaping coils and pressing together slabs to sculpt a three-dimensional portrait, the clay comes to life. Characters are often moody, caught in strange moments of perplexity, quirkiness, ugliness, or beauty. Her work is not preplanned. She begins a figure intuitively and it emerges from the clay with its own persona. Evidence of fingerprints and the marking of tools in the surface are influences of a background of drawing and painting that create a sense of looseness and freedom to the form.

A sculpture may be fired four to five times with colorant underglazes at a low bisque fire temperature and then a final glaze at a high fire to highlight and emphasize coloration. The results from firing are often surprising and bring the work to life in an unexpected way.

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Having attended CCAD and The Ohio State University, she received most of her education in ceramics at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center and various workshops around the country. She has a studio in Columbus, Ohio.