Novice DSLR (Digital single-lens reflex camera), 2nd Place. “Smile of a Friend”, American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) in Jucaro, Cuba. (Photo by Antonio Pastrana/The Ocean Art 2018 Underwater Photography Competition)

“I was born in Zimbabwe, Africa in 1981 and grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I graduated with a degree in Acting, and after college, worked as an actor and musician for the Santa Fe Shakespeare Festival, the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and the California Shakespeare Theater. I have had a lifelong passion for drawing, painting, and sculpture since I first saw Michelangelo's “Head of Leda” in a book in the library”.

Underwater photographer of the year – winner. Dancing Octopus by Gabriel Barathieu (France). Location: Island of Mayotte, off the coast of south-east Africa. “Balletic and malevolent”, one judge said of this octopus, hunting in a lagoon. Barathieu waited until spring tides when there was just 30cm of water on the flats and plenty of light in the shallows. (Photo by Gabriel Barathieu/UPY2017)

Artist Jeff Uitto creates intricate sculptures from driftwood he finds along the coast of Washington. Uitto has sculpted wild horses, soaring eagles, and even a giraffe out of salvaged tree branches. But his work is more than giant animal sculptures. Uitto also has a clear talent for creating beautiful home furniture from driftwood. Finding the right piece of driftwood can take months, and the sculpting can take years.

Photo: A horse sculpture entirely made from driftwood by artist Jeffro Uitto. (Photo by Jeff Uitto/Caters News)

American sculptor Michael Alfano has been sculpting for over fifteen years. A native of New York, he now lives and works in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. His major influences are Salvador Dali, Jo Davidson, and Jean-Antoine Houdon, as well as Buddhist, Taoist, Sufi and other eastern philosophy and literature. He first studied at the Art Students League of New York, with an emphasis on life-size sculpture from the model. His formal education continued at Boston University and was augmented by internships with several prominent sculptors.

French sculptor Pierre Matter was born in 1964. “A mystical child, then a tormented teenager, he studied mathematics half-heartedly. It was only logical that he headed naturally, though initially in an erratic manner, for the mysterious universe of artistic creation. His slow progression in this field led him to try out many kinds of expression and material, from oil to gouache to ink, from comic strips to canvas, and also bas-relief in stone.”