Snooze - sand sculpture

I'm an awful man for sleeping. Usually, I get around 6 hours a night which is just not enough. I set my alarm for 7am and slap the Snooze button twice before I roll out of bed promising that I will get to bed earlier tonight. Unfortunately every evening I get a spurt of energy and my promise is broken.

Immediately I am out of bed I am in panic mode as I get my family up and prepare my son for school. He mostly gets 5 snoozes as I get angrier. I get his clothes ready, then kiss him on the head with a whisper 'Its time to get up'. Get his breakfast ready, then shake his shoulder a bit. Sort his school bag and wash his lunch box, Politely tell him to 'Com'on get up'. Go to the toilet, and start raising my voice at him. Make my coffee and start shouting that 'We will be late. And, if he doesn't get out of bed, I'll drag you the hell out.' These five steps of anger are how I start every day except the weekends when he is first out of bed and waking up the whole house. There's no rest for the wicked.

The Snooze is the most wonderful part of the day and I can understand little Mr. Sleepyheads' reluctance to leave it. A moment when the possibility of falling back asleep and back to your dreams is a reality. The echos of your dreams live on and you are still emotionally tied to them. You are snuggly and the emergencies of the day have yet to seep in. I can't understand the people who are up and at 'em at the first sign of an alarm. They are depriving themselves of the closest we will ever get to a virtual reality.

Day dreaming in Steadhal

I was back at The Stendhal music festival in County Down, Northern Ireland. Last year I had had a bit of a disaster with the sculpture but luckily Ross Parkhill, the organiser of the festival could see the potential of what sand could bring to the family-orientated music and arts festival and had asked me back.

This time I decided to do things slightly differently and not bother wasting time compacting the sand. I asked them to dump a load where they wanted a sculpture and I would work on it as I found it. We also arranged to have a little sandbox where children could play next to me.

I stared at the pile of sand as I waited for water to be organised (You need lots of water when sand sculpting and the brought me a 1 meter cube container). I had no clue what to make. I stared with my eyes glazing over. Then, in the pile, I could see a figure and I just had to resolve it. I didn't know the gender of the figure and this lasted all the way through carving it. Sometimes I thought it was female, sometimes male but it really didn't matter. It had no pronoun which I am sure would blow some people's minds in 2023.

When work is your play

Over the course of the 3-day festival, I worked away and sometimes gave workshops to the children in the sand pit. I brought simple tools and designs they could work with. There were some families that I had met the previous year and some of the very keen children I let help me with the main sculpture.

It was a nice space to work and the audience was very appreciative. With the little sand pit next to me it became somewhat of a Crèche facility and chillout zone in the music festival. I worked till dark and In the evening I would spend hours chatting to Ross in the house where I was staying. We would have a joint and talk about the deeper things in life as we watched the sun come up before going to bed. (Separately)

On the back of the sculpture, I added a pattern which to me represented that halfway state between sleep and waking. I also used the same effect to keep the naked sculpture modest. This was a family festival after all.

It was a wonderful few days for me. The weather was good, the place I was staying was very relaxing, like a green room away from the festival. I had some great chats with the audience and Ross and even though I had no time for snoozing I was living the dream.

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.