Every year in Niigata, Japan, artists take the leftover straw from their annual rice harvest and turn it into works of art. Called Wara art, or Rice-straw art, aspiring young artist Amy Goda has been creating such works since 2013. Her latest series featuring giant animals was completed last week and has already gone viral. Measuring 16 feet tall, they are her largest to date, fashioned after a roaring T-rex and tricerotops, and other animals like a coiled cobra, a crab clapping its claws, and even a rubber ducky. Her characters are surprisingly emotive and elaborate, woven with precision over wooden frames. While whimsical, Goda’s art plays on the age old tradition of harnessing rice and gives it a more meaningful form. The reaction to her sculptures across the globe has inspired her local Wara Art Festival to extend the exhibition of her work, and other artists’, through the month of October.
When you think of a work of art, what is it made out of? Clay, paint, pencil? For Chicago based artist 
Ceramicist 