Cycle Psychology
In 1989 the world looked to be changing. The Soviet Union came apart, the Berlin Wall came down and it seemed as if peace were breaking out all over.
Trust human nature to prevent that horrendous condition. We can't have peace; it's not good for the economy and besides that, our pride will be trampled. So, the old patterns held sway in what really was a remade world. Now, instead of one or two big fights brewing, we have a lot of little ones.
The end of a year. Our planet approaches the point in its orbit that is arbitrarily chosen, by some of the more powerful thought systems, as the beginning of the year. Other cultures have equally valid starting points at equally arbitrary points in our sun-centered track. One more thing to fight over.
"Saturday, September 07, 2002:
'I was discharged Friday afternoon. The first desire was a nice, hot shower. The second desire was a walk on the beach - what a beautiful, perfect autumn-like day. Larry Nelson was doing two sand sculptures near the breakwater. I help him at times. He creates beautiful, sensuous upright sand sculptures. I couldn't stay, but would have loved to see those two completed and their absorption by the sea an hour later when the tide came in.'"
"Sometimes we don't realize how we touch a life. You touched Bob's and I just thought you would like to know."
(Email from Petey, quoting Bob Jeffords, 2002-December-27)
We choose our fights. George creates terrorists behind every Bush and uses that to inflame the populace so they'll forget the economic problems. I, dreamer of very small dreams, choose to struggle on the beach, in full view of everyone. What is beauty? Can I make it? Does it make a difference to anyone else? Don't be quick to judge.
Build number: 02F-22 (lifetime start #261) filtered imported sand, on elongated sloping riser base (stump of 02F-21, reshaped)
Title: none
Date: December 27 (Friday)
Location: Venice Breakwater, on the flat
Start: 0730; construction time approx 8 hours
Height: 3.4 feet (Latchform); riser height about 10 inches
Base: 1.75 feet nominal diameter
Assistant: none
Photo digital: 67 images, Canon Powershot G2 (includes those shot by Rich)
Photo 35mm: approx 22 exposures on Fuji Acros 100 (EI80) w/LX and 28-135 zoom
Photo 6X7: none
Photo volunteer: Construction and complete, Rich w/Canon Z115 and my G2
Video motion: none (camcorder not brought)
Video still: none
Video volunteer: none
New Equipment: none
1. What Winter?
Well, this is it. One last chance to uncover the perfect sand sculpture hiding within that pile. The year's end may be arbitrary--beyond Earth's orbit, the universe continues its stately procession--but it's still a handy way for human beings to keep track of their affairs. Wind up one year, begin the next.
In other areas winter punctuates the year's span with a natural full stop. Stay indoors and think about the year while snow and cold rule the world. Here the only snow is painted onto store windows and people walk the beach in shorts and worry about sunburn.
The trailer is already loaded. All I have to do is pull it out and attach it to the bike. The pack takes a few minutes to load: water, food, hat, windbreaker, digital camera and a 35mm camera for black-and-white photography. Lock the door, get onto the bike and roll away with the sun barely peeking over the southeastern horizon.
The plan is to make a moated multiple and let the high tide near sunset make a reflecting pool around the sculptures. I arrive at the beach and drag my equipment across the long stretch of dry sand. Scouting the area, I realize the plan will have to be abandoned. There's too much sand here and not enough water due at high tide. The moat would have to be two feet deep and that adds up to far more cubic feet of sand to remove than I even want to think about.
Sunlight warms my back in the chill air. I wore a grey shirt just for this reason. I amble around, looking for a building site. Up on the bluff north of the breakwater would be dramatic but the sand there is terrible. Out on the flat it's not much better. Well, if you aren't permitted to do what you want, do what you're permitted. I level off the stump of the previous sculpture and set the Latchform on top of it. I'll make just one, and make it a good one. Suddenly there's lots of time.
Good sand is available, but it will cost. Very coarse sand has been dragged in from someplace and I have to remove this. Immediately after I clear the overburden from enough good sand to fill four buckets King Neptune sends me his best wishes, filling the borrow pit with water. I have to clear out the coarse sand that washed in.
I steadily filter and pound.
"What are you doing?"
"Sand sculpture."
"My name's Shane." Immediately I see Wyoming and a kid hollering "Shane! Shane!"
"I'm Larry."
"I'm an artist. Want to do some painting. Never tried sculpture."
"Sand is a good medium."
"But you have all this equipment!"
"Yes, but you don't have to have it. This is just for improvement. You can do sand sculpture with just your hands and a mussel shell."
"Really?"
"Yes. Come over here. I'll show you."
We walk down the beach. "Find a place just above the tide, where the waves won't hit. This is better done on a falling tide. Dig a hole, wait for the water to seep in. See that? Then take handfuls and plop them on the beach, like that. Make sure you start at a distance from your borrow pit. Keep building, just like this." I make a pile a few inches tall. "I've built sculptures five feet tall this way."
"Really?"
"Yes. Now, when it's as tall as you want, you start carving. Here's a small clam shell. See how you can use it to cut? It's sharper than your fingers. And here's a mussel shell for reaching farther in." I hand him the shells. "OK, go to it. Have fun!" I walk on down and fetch a load of water.
An hour or so later I'm able to take the first stroke with the Sand Knife. The new plan is for interlaced fingers at the sculpture's top, with a large opening to the west to admit sunset light. I'm immediately glad I used the box filter because there is nothing like carving fine-screened sand. It cuts like silk and retains fine edges. Beautiful. The sun works on my tight shoulder muscles. A pelican flies low overhead, circles just behind the breakwater and then dives. A young surfer catches small waves, practicing standing up.
"What are you doing?"
"Sand sculpture."
"Do you work in other materials?"
"No. Well, a few. And I make my tools, which are a kind of small sculpture. But mainly sand because I like working here. Lots better than being in Kansas."
"Kansas? My brother lives there."
"Where?"
"Salina."
"Are you serious? I was born there."
"Yes. He's the chief financial officer for a company there. I've visited him. Hot!"
"Yah. And humid."
"Right!"
"Actually, Kansas has some beauty. There's one day in the fall and another in the spring when it's a good place to live. But I'd rather be here in December."
"I can see why."
2. One Sculpture, Many Ideas
All right. Interlaced fingers. interesting engineering, but how do I make it graceful? Start with the outside; if you want the overall shape of a sculpture to be good, you have to start from that shape. I didn't always have the patience to do this but the results have been so positive that I've learned to stay that hole-boring hand. At least until Rich gets here.
The north side becomes a slab that widens and gently curves inward from the sculpture's base to the top. Its top part will be cut into the fingers for this side. On the south the top is more curved, and tucks in about halfway down, where it meets another bulge. The fingers on this side will be more arched. Various other parts are defined, including a tightly bent recurve on the west that will frame the sunlight-gathering opening.
"How did you do this?"
"I piled the sand inside a removable form, then started carving."
"Wow. I wish I could try that."
"You can. All you need is hands." I lead him down the beach and build another demonstration pile next to the first. "Use shells and your fingers to carve. I've made sculptures four feet tall this way."
He stays with it no longer than Shane did. I need Bert. My priority, of course, is to finish my sculpture.
Ready for the fingers. Except that they don't work. No matter how I sketch them on the packed sand they just don't look right. I still want to echo the western edge; if not with fingers, how else can I do that? Forget it for now. Work on the inside.
The day begins with much potential and little action. A cylinder of sand. Act and the potential is gradually taken away; the cylinder takes on ever more tightly defined shapes which must be fitted with others. Choice disappears with each stroke, each fallen grain. Choice here dictates somewhere else, and engineering rules all.
Wrapping the lower part all the way around seems too simple. I cut it off under the top bulge and plan a hole there. Where will it come out? That depends on where this part to the right goes. How about making it curve upward into the top cavity? That would be good engineering, and might even look good. I bore upward and hole through into the west part of the cavity.
That pretty well settles the gross aspects of design. The forms are decided and made; now it's a matter of details.
"You're almost finished."
"Not quite. Hi, Rich. There's a lot of detail work left, and I plan some work on the base also.
Sailboats catch the slow wind with shining sails and slowly work northward over the sparkling water. The only clouds are long thin ones made by airplanes. Surfers with longboards are the only ones getting rides on this day of calm surf. Waves lap closer but will not get here until early tomorrow morning. It's too dark then for photography.
That big northern panel looks too plain. Like what it is: a slab. We can't have the fingers, but how about trying the weaving idea anyway? Start with a small hole that would show the edge of the internal arch. I bore this through and it's in the wrong place, about an inch west of where I thought I was putting it. Rats. Well, it'll just have to be bigger, but that messes up the new plan. Bag that plan. Try something else. Make the hole a sort of star shape,and continue its lines in ledges that divide the big slab into subtle subsets. Wonder of wonders, this works, and it becomes a great design element.
The south side gives me an opportunity to try a similar design touch in a different situation, where the curving top panel meets the other pieces. Various ledges lead down and around, and I cut a hole along the edge of one curve. Nice. Mass hiding, or good design? Who cares? It looks good.
3. One Sculpture, Many Principles, One Design
"Yeah, you basically practice like it's a contest. Most folks take it a little bit easier when they are just practicing."
(Bert Adams, Email, 2002-November-2)
It doesn't feel like practice, but that's how it works out. In this sculpture it works out as knowing when to quit taking sand away so that I have enough left to make a design work from another direction. Bore through here, but leave this piece so that it will give the space some definition. I need to see something in there, not just space, and this wonderful smooth filtered sand will hold up to the delicate carving necessary.
Carve no sand before its time. Leave it alone until you absolutely have to remove it, or you're certain you won't need it later.
Details spread outward, merging into larger parts, and those become a sculpture. Some of the curves echo others, while some curves cross or simply stop. Some of this works well. Some of it doesn't; move a few degrees and what was graceful is now rather awkward.
The problem is that this sculpture didn't come from one idea. My head is full of designs and they're all trying to be expressed.
"You're expressing your idea, where everyone can see it."
"Yes. Sand is a delight to work, and I have to go where it is." But no one else has said it just that way, I think as this passerby walks away.
There are lots of people on the beach. Wandering, fishing, digging with their toes, wading in the cold water. It's like a summer day, typical for this interholiday period. Always busy. Just wait until tomorrow. As the tide pinches in around the flat the crowd becomes more dense.
4. The Day Feels Long
"It's 2 o'clock," Rich says.
"Plenty of time, and I'm through with design. Time for clean-up now. And then I have some base work to do.
I retouch edges and holes, then brush the loose sand away. A corner chips off so that has to be polished and made to look good. Other subtle touches suggest themselves: dishing in a panel, undercutting the back edge of an opening so more light will pass through. Some edges are sharpened, others smoothed. All are brushed so the laminae show.
"That's good." The sculpture stands, clean and sparkling. I turn to the base.
It was built upon the remains of 02F-21, which left its own base plus all of its sand here. I just levelled it and made a new pile, with new sand, so the base is nearly a foot tall, dark imported sculpture sand on top of the original native-sand base. I cut it to a sharp edge around two-thirds of this sculpture and smooth the area below the "cliff." The waste sand from this operation gets dumped inland, so the base stretches away to the northeast, descending as it goes. I want the sculpture to occupy a slanting headland above the beach.
I've tried this before. It didn't work very well, and it doesn't really work now. Probably because I'm too tired to figure out how to fix it. Plenty of daylight, as Rich announces three o'clock. No brains left. I brush the base, make a signature pad and curving surround, and sign it.
The base really isn't that bad. It does serve to separate the sculpture from the beach, without being too obvious. I wish for more but don't really know what that might be. Good enough. Take some photos.
5. Sparkling Finale
"It's a good one."
"Thanks, Rich. I like it too." Well, at least parts of it.
Several people have thanked me for making it, for adding beauty to the beach. Now I just wish a few of them would leave so I could get shadow-free photographs. Patience is rewarded. One by one I get the images, then get some more as the light changes. One other photographer also waits, without comment, for people to move.
The sculpture is really made of light. Shadows cast on it make it invisible, and today there are no clouds on the horizon.
"That's a lens with a camera attached."
"Yah, Rich, that's the Sony. Good lens, but not so good dynamic range."
"Sony F707. I like it!" She's enthusiastic, shooting from many angles. The camera has seen a lot of use. "I normally shoot with a D1s."
"Wow." That's the Canon 11-million-pixel single lens reflex.
"You know what? This is a snapshot camera, but its color is right there. Plenty of detail, even in prints!" She has me stand next to the sculpture for a photo. "See?" She shows me the image, which looks good. "Under the right conditions it does a great job." Her children are all around, asking me how to do sand sculpture.
"Will you give me a lesson? I'll pay you."
"Well, you have to remember that the key is water."
He promptly gets up, grabs a handful of sand and runs to the ocean. He comes back with the wet sand. "Like this?"
"Yes. Feel how much better that sticks together now?"
"Yes!" Soon his sisters have joined him in running back and forth from water to building site, my day's work recapitulated in seconds. There are no big jobs, just small tools.
Part of the group leaves.
"OK, let's go!" Two of the children come, but the third is totally engrossed in his sand project.
"That one's born to be a sand sculptor. Don't quit until you run out of daylight."
She flashes me a smile as she tugs on his arm. "Come on. She'll be upset if we don't stay together." Eventually he gets up and they all dash away. This is the beach. Chuck your schedule as soon as you step onto the sand. What's the hurry?
Rich and I stand around as the light turns reddish orange. Lovely. Occasionally people move so I can get an image.
Suddenly I realize the sun is almost gone. I've been packing equipment. Rich is rooting around on the table.
"What are you looking for?"
"The red bag."
"It's right here."
"You moved it."
"No, I rotated. . ."
"The table. Yes. Fooled me."
I look up just as the sun is disappearing. It's clear. Perhaps we'll get Yes! A green flash. Rich looks up and sees the end of the longest period of green I've ever seen, a spark hanging on the horizon for at least a second. Amazing.
I pick up the other camera. Good light for black-and-white, to accompany the sunlit ones I shot earlier.
"A quarter of a second? I don't think so." Slow film, slow lens. I put it away.
Under the glowing sky we traipse eastward. The wash of waves grows quieter and is overwhelmed by the noise of skateboards and portable stereos.
"I'm drafting you!"
I look back to see Rich pushing the sand cart right in the tracks of the trailer I'm pulling. I then start to curve back and forth.
"You really are a stinker." We both laugh.
"It costs me more than it costs you," I pant.
The trailer is attached and the cart strapped down on top.
"Now it's time for my safety equipment."
Rich looks at me with curiosity. I get the little LEDs out of my pocket and put one in each ear. He breaks up laughing. The star on my chest is the final touch.
"Oh, the lights go around. Isn't that cute."
"I want to be safe."
"But no taillight."
"Well, that's a minor problem."
"Good night, Rich. Thanks for your help."
"Fare you well. See you next year."
That's right. Five days hence. One year ends, the next begins. This year has wrought amazing changes in my sand sculpture. I wonder what the next one will bring.
6. 2002: a brief review (34 Days On the Beach)
The year started with lost tools. I replaced those and made some new ones, in particular the sand scorps, which have proven to be very useful in a limited way. When I need them, they're the only tools that work.
It was my most profitable commercial year ever. Three jobs, paying me enough to buy a good digital still camera. These jobs forced me to concentrate on things other than design, such as speed and getting it right the first time, which paid dividends through the rest of the year. Carve quickly and you can carve more. This led to the multiple sculpture.
Speed led to something else: the Quick Filter. I have a lower tolerance for frustration than Larry Dudock and built this to solve his sand-screening problem. It turned out to solve a problem I didn't know I had: slow filtering with my fine box filter. Using the Quick Filter takes about one-tenth as much time, and correspondingly less effort. It still improves packing quality, making the use of coarse sand quite viable for high-quality sand sculpture. This made the multiple sculpture even better.
The sculptures:
22 form-built sculptures, monolithic
12 multiples, one free-pile, the rest form-built
10 free-pile sculptures, ranging from tiny ones carved with a mussel shell to full-scale jobs with tools
3 relief sculptures carved in sand embankments. I can't resist sand that's already packed. These used to be called "bas-relief," but are truly relief sculptures.
Date Build LS Notes
Jan 01: 02F-1 229
Jan 05: O2F-2 230
Jan 11: 02P-1
Jan 12: 02F-3 231
Jan 22: 02F-4 232
Jan 24: 02F-5 233
Jan 26: 02F-6 234
Feb 08: 02P-2
Feb 09: 02F-7 235 (abandoned due to wind)
Mar 08: 02F-8 236 (with Bert Adams)
Apr 06: 02F-9 237
Apr 20: 02F-10 238
May 04: 02F-11 239
May 06: 02F-12 240 (for MTV)
May 18: 02F-13 241 (for SM Library show)
Jun 03: 02F-14 242 (for "Blind Date")
Jun 29: 02M-1 243 two units (for contest, first place)
Jul 12: 02F-15 244
Jul 19: 02M-2 245 three units (first "private" multiple)
Jul 26 02F-16 246
Aug 09: 02F-17 247
Sep 03: 02P-3
Sep 04: 02F-18 248
Sep 06: 02M-3 free-pile, two units
Sep 07: 02P-4 (intended multiple)
Sep 08: 02P-5
Sep 15: 02P-6
Oct 11: 02P-7 (with Lise Nelson)
Oct 20: 02M-4 249 three units (for Cabrillo Marine Aquarium)
Nov 02: 02M-5 250
Nov 12: 02P-8
Nov 13: 02M-6 251
Nov 15: 02M-7 252
Nov 17: 02F-19 253
Nov 19: 02F-20 254
Nov 21: 02M-8 255
Nov 24: 02M-9 256
Nov 27: 02M-10 257
Nov 30: 02M-11 258 (for Bob Jeffords memorial)
Dec 13: 02P-9
Dec 21: 02M-12 259 two units (forced early end by rain)
Dec 22: 02R-1, R-2, R-3 (in Venice Beach protection berm)
Dec 24: 02P-10
Dec 25: 02F-21 260
Dec 27: 02F-22 261
The Tools:
#1/2 Loop Tool (replaces lost tool)
#2C Steel Finger (rebuilt extant tool)
#13/2 Steel Pinky (replaces lost tool)
#19B Shaver Tool (new blade on old handle; still doesn't work)
#21 Bigger Loop
#22 Long Sand Scorp
#23 Medium Sand Scorp
#24 Steel Thumb Prototype (blade needs work, handle shape is wrong for purpose)
#25 Steel Thumb Alternative (the prototype works better)
The Equipment:
Quick Filter, 0.125 hardware cloth over PVC pipe cubic frame
Octascreen, 0.125 hardware cloth over PVC pipe octagonal frame
Cercoscreenus, 0.125 hardware cloth on plywood ring, pool plastic, cherrywood handle
Bigfoot Tamper Mk 2 (replaces worn-out item)
Yes, sand sculpture pretty well consumed the year. No hikes, no motorcycle rides. Several mountain bike rides locally was about it.
Written December 28
Edited and amended December 29
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