The Merit and Grace of Sunti Pichetchaiyakul
Tracing the sculptor’s path from a small village in Thailand to the Flathead, and to global renown
By Brian D'Ambrosio
Editor’s Note: This is one of the stories featured in the summer edition of Flathead Living magazine. Pick up a free copy on newsstands throughout the valley.
The power of merit and grace that radiates from the face of one of Sunti Pichetchaiyakul’s hyper-realistic sculptures is externally different from that of all other bodies of art. Examine the fine tranquility of the eyes or the dignified awakened spirit of the chin, nose, and mouth. Look over a work that is freed from even the chronological characteristic of a beginning and an ending.
It is no stretch to say that Sunti’s art is the source of his life. When Sunti listens to the murmuring of his artistic impulses, it puts him at ease. As a young boy his artistic mind was eager, joyful. His was an alive mind from the start – and it stayed alive, sinuous, learned.