Get real

Thai artist?s monk elicits oohs and ahhs

Thai artist Sunti Pichetchaiyakul loves to watch the reactions as people eye the meditating monk at his booth at local art fairs.

He laughed, mimicking their expressions of amazement when they realize the monk is a sculpture. From the veins on his hands to the wrinkles and age spots on his face, the aged monk speaks to the mastery of his creator.

The 86-year-old holy man who inspired the work paid Sunti the ultimate tribute.

?He likes to joke, ?He looks more like me than I do,?? Sunti said as translated by Erica, his American wife.

The two arrived in the Flathead in April as the first stop on the internationally known artist?s American debut. They wanted to check out the possibilities of relocating while Sunti follows his dream of sculpting and painting American Indians.

?I find painting Native Americans rewarding as their culture and beliefs are very similar to mine,? Sunti said.

He said that the mystique of the Old West captivates children in Thailand just as in the United States. He said they also dress up and play cowboys and Indians.

?My brother was always the cowboy and I was the Indian,? Sunti said.

Montana offered him a firsthand opportunity to experience and capture the real American Indian experience in his uniquely Asian style.

In just a few months, he has created several paintings including Charlie Iron Breast, an oil on canvas, and Chief Joseph in acrylic. Sunti also has traditional Oriental ink landscapes inspired by the majesty he sees in Montana.

?Wherever he looks, he sees art,? Erica said. ?Sunti went to Glacier Park and felt very inspired.?

The artist put on his first local public display during Memorial Day weekend in Bigfork, where Erica?s parents, Tony and Susan Figueiredo, live. He appeared again recently at the Whitefish Arts Festival with his monk sculpture in tow and a new clay sculpture of Erica in process.

Shock and ahhs again were the order of the day as festival-goers finally ventured close to check out the motionless monk. It?s no different in Asia, where the artist has a reputation for investing his fiberglass resin sculptures with a lifelike and spiritual dimension.

Just 36, Sunti has created sculptures, murals and paintings for more than 50 temples in Thailand. He has worked for clients in Japan, China, Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and America.

The Thai artist has made 37 television appearances, including on UBC and CNN World.

?He has two galleries in Bangkok,? Erica said.

Born in Nakhon Rachasima, Thailand, Sunti said his parents considered him a miracle from the beginning since he was born four years after his mother had a procedure to prevent additional births. He also had a birthmark in the location of a third eye, symbolizing enlightenment.

They named him Sunti, which means one for special one. As his logo, he uses the Thai symbol for one, a circular loop, as the iris of an eye.

Although all of his older five brothers and sisters were talented at painting and drawing, he was the only one to make his living creating. According to Sunti, his proclivity for drawing and painting emerged between age 2 and 3.

He was making art by age 4.

?At 6, I was selling sculptures,? he said. ?At 7, I won a regional art contest and then continued on that path.?

Although equally talented at painting and sculpture, Sunti said his teachers urged him to focus on sculpture to make the most of his natural gift of large hands. He demonstrated how his fingers nearly encompass his wife?s head from each side.

?It?s as if I were born to sculpt,? he said.

His studies continued until he earned a university degree in fine arts. Along the way, Sunti participated as an observer in autopsies and surgical work to sharpen his understanding of anatomy.

The artist motioned with his hands the opening up of a chest during one procedure.

?It was very interesting,? Sunti said. ?I wanted to understand what is going on underneath to understand the life in a person.?

Clay remains his favorite sculpting medium, though he works in others including wax, plaster and concrete. He uses clay as one step of a multi-step complex process involved in producing fiberglass resin sculptures.

He begins with a model, taking numerous pictures. Sunti then affixes his clay to a support structure such as wood for the initial rendering that requires a deft attack.

?You have to do it quickly ? it dries out and cracks in three days,? he said.

Once finished, he coats the clay in plaster to create a mold for a wax rendering that he further refines with fine details. Next, the wax gets coated in plaster for another mold for silicon and then comes the final fiberglass resin model.

?He paints that with acrylic,? Erica said, to produce the final work of art.

Although he has used glass eyes, Sunti said he prefers to paint them because he considers them the most crucial part of portraying the life force. The entire process involves from three to five or six months of painstaking work.

?To make something super-real is the biggest challenge for the artist,? he said.

Sunti describes working in clay as his nirvana ? a kind of meditation in which he merges with the medium. He described his latest endeavor, capturing his wife, as surprisingly difficult.

?I was very confident I could do that. But there is so much more you notice in the process,? he said. ?It?s the hardest thing I?ve ever done ? sculpting Erica.?

She laughed, describing his frustration as she moved constantly and changed with every passing mood. After fighting with the eyes, he finally shut them with clay to attack another day.

?He changed my face about five times,? she said.

Sunti described how his clay rendering differs from a bronze bust sculpture that he envisions for Erica. He exaggerates the features slightly to create shadow and depth to compensate for color.

The public may check his progress on Erica as well as experience his monk sculpture at the upcoming Bigfork Festival of the Arts on Aug. 2 and 3.

He also has a Web site, suntiartworld.com.

Sunti and Erica intend to stay in Montana at least through October when she is due to deliver their first child. In the meantime, he will continue producing art for his Montana collection, reflecting a unique junction of East and West.

?We want to stay with his unique style, tailored to what people want to buy here,? Erica said.

Along with art festivals, Sunti also works occasionally out of Eric Thorsen?s gallery at the Lodge at Whitefish Lake.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.