All images copyright Selva Sanjines. All rights reserved. 

I sculpt because I like to express my ideas through forms and materials that show beauty, balance and mood in nature. My goal is to open communication between the observer and my art. I like to work with organic forms and natural colors because it reminds me of my early years growing up in Chile, observing the bucolic landscapes.

My cultural background, which gives much importance to traditions, family, friendship makes me who I am. Infusing all these rich elements into my art is key to my life’s work. I have always liked to work with my hands to create forms. For me, forms are harmonious representations of organic life which I dearly love. It is when I am sculpting these forms that my spirit feels truly happy and at peace. I completely become absorbed in my work and it feels like a very spiritual out-of-body experience. It’s a wonderful feeling to be truly connected with my works and be able to share them with so many people. 

I work with many different materials in sculpture but I do have my own preferences. Wood is very attractive to me. I find it to be quite organic and I can easily communicate with it. For some reason, wood “talks” to me directly and leads me to how it wants to be carved. Next to wood, I enjoy working with marble and alabaster. Both are beautiful stones that each have their distinct characteristics. The former is hard and precious while the latter is softer, more vulnerable and translucent. Lastly, I also work with clay and enjoy doing so because of the direct manipulation of the material and the fast gratification of seeing the forms come to life. As a sculptor, I like to peel off layer by layer and discover what is inside the stone of wood more so than the process of addition of volumes through modeling. So when I work with clay, my approach is to carve it as I do with harder materials.