Sayaka Kajita Ganz is an artist who makes beautiful sculptures from discarded objects. A master of Fine Arts in 3D studies, she uses objects like plastic toys, utensils and metal objects in her sculptors and inject a second life in them. She mostly sculpts animals and when you give them a first look, it seems to be moving. That's the beauty of her art. She also views her sculptures as human relationships.

"I try to understand the human relationships by building these sculptures", says Sayaka.

The basic idea behind her creations and beauty of her sculptures makes her the 'Artist Of The Week' on our blog. We contacted her a small interview with us and she has been very kind to spare a few moments for us. Catch it below:

Sayaka, please introduce yourself to E-junkies. Tell us a bit about your background as an artist.

I was born in Yokohama, Japan. My family moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil when I was 9 years old and we lived there for almost 5 years. We went back to Japan when I was 13, then moved to Hong Kong when I was 17. I graduated from high school in Hong Kong and came to the United States to attend university. Up to high school, I never graduated from the same school I started in. All these re-locations have affected my thinking, made me flexible and also made me crave a sense of belonging. I get a great comfort from fitting things together, perhaps partially because of these experiences.

What motivates you everyday? Who/What is your inspiration?

I get the inspiration from the discarded objects themselves. The human history behind each piece is very interesting - someone designed and created this object, someone used and later discarded it. I am also inspired by nature and life energy of animals. The motion, wind, water current, waves, and time.

Enlighten our readers with your wonderful artwork.

My work is all about reclamation and freedom. I collect discarded objects from second hand stores and assemble them into organic forms. Mostly I make animal forms of various colors but I also make more abstract sculptures. I try to use motion lines in my sculptures, just like some old cartoon drawings, to create the illusion that my animals are moving. My process is very experimental and non-traditional but my techniques are almost primitive, I drill holes in the plastic objects and tie them together onto an armature.

The objects become like brush strokes in an impressionist painting, when you see the whole sculpture from the distance you do not notice the individual objects but recognize the overall form and motion that are being depicted. When you get up close you start to notice how each piece is a familiar object.

You make use of discarded objects to create such unique sculptures. What is the basic idea behind using discarded objects?

The objects that we use around the house are often designed to fit our hands or body and have beautiful curvi-linear forms. I love putting odd shapes and forms together like a puzzle, so these objects work very well. I also like all the colors they come in, and that there are subtle variations in the colors within each spectrum.

I read on your website that 'you try to understand the human relationships by building these sculptures'. Please tell us more about it.

I like to think of these objects as having very human qualities, each having different shapes, each having different history. Some are bent, burned, stained or cracked. Each also possesses a primary visual direction, long and linear pieces becoming almost like an arrow and more spherical or circular pieces more static, wanting to remain where they are. When I put these into a sculpture it almost feels like trying to persuade a group of people to do something together. Some are very stiff and stubborn, some are flexible and pliable, some areas will have very close connections between objects and other will have huge gaps. But with all the small gaps and cracks and stains the piece still looks beautiful when you step back and look at it, as long as the overall orientation of the linear objects create a single visual flow. If we can share a vision, even if the details don't become completely seamless we can do something beautiful together.

Let's talk about your current project called 'Eat, Drink and Celebrate'. It looks beautiful. What is it all about?

This piece has gone through several different versions. The first one started out with my friend and artist Steve Williams and I playing with these plastic martini and margarita glasses in the studio. We started stacking them up, top to top and bottom to bottom and saw them make beautiful designs. I collected more of the similar stemware and have been expanding on the idea ever since, with the addition of larger bowls and vases to add variety to the strings. I have made a total of 30 strings of various colors so far, some translucent and some opaque.

The latest development is a collaborative kinetic work with another artist Jim Merz. We used strings of opaque stemware and bowls and installed LED modules inside the bowls and stemware to make the plastic glow from the inside. Jim also motorized the strings so that each string rotates independently, then the three strings together rotate as a group from the hanging platform above. We are now applying for some public art commission using variations of this design.

Everyone has their favorites. Which project of yours is closest to your heart and why?

My favourite is "Emergence", two large horses emerging from the wall. I have always loved horses and I think that this one captures the motion very well, so that you can almost feel the wind trailing behind them.

What do you consider to be turning point in your life as an artist? Or is it yet to come?

I think that my life as an artist is full of small turning points. I don't believe in a single big break. The biggest one for me has been the decision to go to graduate school. I switched materials from scrap metal to plastic objects during that time, and my career has really taken a big turn upward since then. However, almost every decision to exhibit my work, locally or nationally or internationally, has lead to bigger, better things later. It is difficult to decide which applications to send in, which invitations to accept or reject.

How and where do you promote your work? As an experienced and successful artist, which medium or method do you deem to be most important and effective for promoting art. Do you think that an artist's work can be equally recognized and appreciated online as opposed to offline?

I show my work a lot, both online and offline. Although I prefer my work to be seen in person as much as possible, the online presence is very important for an artist in the current art world. Often the online exhibitions will lead to a future offline exhibition in a remote location where the artist has never shown before. I have sold largest works, been offered largest commissions, invitations and other opportunities by people and organizations who saw my work online.

What are the challenges that a struggling artist has to face to create a space for himself/herself in this competitive web world?

You need to start with the basic, make a website. There's enough space for everyone just to have a website. The challenge of getting people to look at your website can wait until you have a website, or else you just won't do it. Then promote it on Facebook, twitter, and tell all your friends about it and ask for their feedback. I think it is better to have a simple, well organized website with strong images than to have many moving icons and cool but confusing overall layout.

Any project on the cards? Is there any dream project of yours?

Jim Merz and I are applying for a public art commission in Seattle right now. I'm in a group exhibition in Washington D.C. in March, I have a commission do create four horse sculptures at the Isle of Man in October and I will make a series of four sculptures (three of marine animals and one of the North Pacific Gyre) for the Monterey Bay Aquarium using plastic debris from the ocean in 2012. I do have a few projects I've been contemplating for a while, one a series of three humpback whales swimming upward to the surface of the water in spiral pattern, and the other a series of deer prancing with abstract motion lines.

Many artists would draw inspiration from you. Share a piece of advice with them or anything you'd like to convey to our readers.

My advice is to be sincere. This is the best advice I received from my professor. Don't make up a fancy academic concept if your heart is not in it. Instead look deeper inside yourself and find out where your artistic drive comes from, what inspires you and what your personal artistic goals are.

Sayaka, thanks for a wonderful interview. We wish you all the very best!

Visit Sayaka's website at SayakaGanz.com.

For more inspiring interviews of talented artists like Sayaka, you can subscribe to our RSS feed. You can also choose to receive updates directly in your inbox.

Do join us on Facebook: