Chris Ryniak's unreal animal sculptures

Chris Ryniak is best known as a painter of unnatural flora and fauna. But the graduate and former instructor at the Ringling College of Art and Design also brings his bizarre beasties to life in three dimensions. Hi-Fructose Magazine posted an interview with Ryniak and a sneak peek at his sculptures, product and process.

Your sculpture pieces often reference hilarious poses or outright cuteness in some form, do these come naturally or do you find things in nature to reference?

I reference my teeth a lot. The forms are fairly organic, and often have animal elements to them, like elephant skin texture and such. It all depends on the piece...

When I get a vinyl figure to customize, I never look at it the way it was intended to be displayed. I flip it upside-down and on it's side, see if the arms can become ears..etc. So the figure is whatever I want it to be anyway, it's a fun way to do things I wouldn't normally do though, work with new shapes.

The original sculpts are approached as organically and spontaneously as possible, they kind of sculpt themselves once I really get moving and my brain turns off. If I think about things too much and analyze the task at hand, things go wonky-poop.

"Chris Ryniak spills the beans (all over his secret sculpture projects)"