"I’ve been a sculptor since 1968, when I was 15 years old. I began as a wood carver and I’ve then moved into granite and marble carving. For most of the last 40 years, however, I have concentrated on steel sculptures. I have created my own technique in steel, which I call “flame-carved steel” — a direct outgrowth of my early wood and stone carvings. Flame-carved steel is executed with the oxygen-acetylene torch; it renders the same textural results in steel as one might see in carved stone. In the last 20 years, I have also been forging steel, which gives my massive steel sculptures the feeling of lightness through the rhythm and movement of the forged elements incorporated into the sculptures. I have returned to wood sculpting as a means to create models for large outdoor steel or stainless sculptures of the future.

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During the last two years, I have increased my range of expression by incorporating a daily practice of executing pastels and other works on paper. At the same time, I have been working on wall pieces made of bronze, copper, brass, stainless steel and steel. This has brought the excitement of real earth colors into the movement and rhythm of my recent work."

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The son of abstract expressionist painter Joop Sanders, John Sanders was born in 1953 and grew up in Manhattan, New York City. He graduated from Trinity School 1971, then SUNY at Stonybrook, then obtained an MFA from Berkeley, California in 1979. Sanders recently installed "Wind" at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, NY.  "Wind" is 10ft by 8ft weighing in at 6500 lbs.