What to make? - sand sculpture

Thinking of a new idea for each sculpture can at times be difficult. Trying to come up with something that has not been tried before with all the sculptures I've made and seen can sometimes lead me into a sort of writers block. All can seem lost and I nearly resort to pulling one from my back catalog and redoing it. But then, like in the ashes of a wood burning stove there's a spark and a new idea starts to form. Sometimes it is fully formed, other times it's just an ember in need of fuel and care to help it grow.

So was our experience at the 2005 Harrison Hot Springs 2005 World championships in Canada. I was back for the second time to this long running contest. I've said before that I dislike competitions when it comes to the arts, How can one judge between all the styles of art created. But for me going to Canada was a way to see friends and an excuse to have a trip to see Family in The US of A after the event.

Last time our team was placed fourth and it would also be fun to see if we could better that and bring more art to the usual Disneyesque sculptures on display.

But, what to make?

We had no time as a team beforehand to think of ideas so we sat the night before the event in our motel looking at each other across the room. Ideas were proposed but didn't stick. We could think of nothing that jelled with everyone. Thing were growing desperate. The next moment an idea appeared well, actual the moment was the idea. All of us sitting around think of what to make could be the idea. So that is what we made.

Each of use would carve a self portrait sculpture of us sitting thinking and in the center would be a nondescript object forming out of the ground.

Portrait

Making a portrait of myself was good practice and as I'm sure you can see much more wass needed. I suppose trying to reproduce such beauty in sand was always going to be difficult. Interestingly when I look at it now it looks a lot like my father so, I must have been doing something right. Although, what that something was I will never know.

Landscape

The object at the center was quite abstract and I think it really needed to be to spell out our idea. It did give the whole sculpture the appearance of a drip landing in water and rippling out to us which I think worked quite well and gave another layer to the story.

I enjoyed making this sculpture and also the raised eyebrows it gave to the other contestants. This kind of sculpture was not normal by the standards of the event and forcing people to think about what they were seeing was above many peoples heads but I think they liked this European style because it was a breath of fresh air. Harrison was a wonderful place to work with the amazing mountain backdrop and to see a whole beach turn to sculpture in the week of the project was pretty amazing.

For our sculpture we were awarded 3rd place which was one prize up from the last year. We already resolved that we would come to Harrison two more times to win the second and the first prize just so we could say we I had them all but for me working in a competition which was more like a race than anything else wasn't really my thing.We already decided we would come next time with a better thought out plan on what we would make and maybe even do what most of the other sculptors did which was a scene with different elements like a stage set. A camping scene, a garage, a saloon, you get the idea. These were always the ones that won and maybe it would be fun trying to beat them at there own game. But, what would we make?

The money I received from the winnings came in very handy as I was planning on my little holiday in Kentucky just after. So we all parted ways and I headed for the border after a job well done.

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Ps

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

Heaven and Hell - sand sculpture

Winter - sand sculpture

Egyptian Scribe - sand sculpture

I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite