American Sports - sand sculpture

I wish I was more prolific on Hive but my life is pretty hectic at the moment and every time I sit down to write something, within moments I get called on to solve my world's latest problem. I seem to be only able to manage one post a week and even this is proving to be difficult. I have not lost interest in posting and try to spend each evening after I settle my family doing a bit if nothing else but just to feel like I created something. Thanks to those who have stuck with me and I appreciate all the interactions.

2017

So, I start my next year of documenting my work as a sculptor of ephemeral materials. This piece was created in 2017 at Japan's Tottori sand sculpture museum. I was so happy to get a second invite back. Firstly, to visit the country again but also to have the time to do another sculpture in this very prestigious project.

Hall of sand

You heard me right, This is a sand sculpture museum which is carved each year based on a new theme. It is housed in a purpose-built building and gets hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. The payment is also very good and the Japanese treat us like rock stars. What is there not to like?

If I did have one niggle it would be the theme. I don't want to be too negative but I do think the themes could be more adventurous and since this is a museum I believe that they could and should be more arty and experimental.

Don't get me wrong it always looks amazing and they get some of the best sculptors in the world to work there (the present company is up for debate) but it always feels a bit formulaic and safe which I find a pity. I believe the public would be open to a bit more seeing with their brains and not just their eyes.

This year the theme was USA and was just a big collage of stuff, including my own work. I feel that if we want sand art to transcend the sand castle and be more accepted as an art form there should be more meaning than just seeing.

I should probably shut up now as I know I am not in a majority of sand sculptors who think like this. But this is my blog and I'll say what I want. Let history be the judge.

Back in USSA

I believe I had another blog post recently with a theme based on the USA and my reaction to it. It is not something that I find too inspiring. I had concluded in that post that it was because I was so familiar with the subject and had nothing new to learn but here I was given the sub-theme of sports and I was happy enough with that.

I am not really interested in competitive sports and so I figured I might have to learn something and I would also enjoy the challenge of carving large figures.

I was given a sketch to carve to. This project is very well organised and the designs are made by Katsu (Katsuhiko Chaen). Creative freedom is a bit limited and in a way, I can understand why. It needs to work all together as one big piece and so I was not going to rock the boat too much.

Adding my stamp

With Permission, however, I made some changes which I thought might read better. Shifting a few things around and adding some other elements.

With sand, as you should know by now from following my blog, you always start from the top and work down. letting the sand fall away as you go and you also have the lower sand to stand on without damaging anything. Here is where I encountered my first and long-lasting issue.

If you notice that the top most thingy was the tennis player's hand. Well, that had to be finished first before I worked down. The whole rest of the figure would use whatever I did there as its scale. Trying to work the proportions of the whole body from just a hand proved difficult, especially because of the scale I was working on and the foreshortening that caused. Usually, hands are the last till I would carve. Maybe I am giving myself a hard time, you probably didn't even notice that it was too big and now I've gone and drawn all your attention to it and burst the perception bubble.

I think it is important for me to point out the bits that annoyed me in a sculpture so that I can learn. I was happy with the rest of her. The ball is just sitting on the top made from a chunk of sand that broke off.

Here is a worm's eye view to show that it actually looked ok from the perspective I carve her from.

I was happy with the basketball player as he had a nice sense of movement. Being able to connect him to the wall of sand helped give him a nice dynamic.

Creating the other figures was also fun. Working in different scales was the best way I had to use the sand. In the background, I added a stadium which gave the whole thing a forced perspective depth and I think this worked well for something that was actually quite flat.

The boxer was left quite roughly carved on purpose. I believe it added to the action and contrast of the piece.

So much potential

As ever the quality of the other sculptures was amazing. I will do a post sometime in the future showing it all. I like the different levels that the building has for the sculptures. It makes everything look much bigger than it is and lends itself to some nice perspective work.

The Tottori sand museum is situated beside the sea in Japan but before you get to the sea there are some of the most impressive sand dunes I have ever seen. They dwarf everything and as beach sand goes it is one of the best to carve in the world. The above image is a little lake among the dunes.

Here are some of the band that I played with. From the left. Some Japanese lad that photobombed, Karen Fralich (Canada), Sue MaGrew (USA), Dan Belcher (USA), Marielle Heessels (Netherlands), David Ducharme (Canada), Melineige Beauregard (Canada), Susanne Ruseler (Netherlands).

Rumblings

It was a great project and the Japanese were, as always, really nice to us. But in the background, I could see that there was some politics going on between the organisers and it seemed that Katsu was upset. This was a project he has put a lot of effort into over the years from carving in the sand dunes to growing it to this scale. It seemed that the city council and local tourist organisation were thinking of bringing the whole thing in another direction and maybe even replacing him. But I think in years since they have mended things.

If you are ever by this way go take a look.

Ps

Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.