Sand Castle Days Evolving?

I want to talk today about Sand Castle Days and the Sand Castle Trail. (Please doesn't groan ;)

I recently received an email asking about dates for the 25th annual SCDays. The website has not been updated, so I forwarded the request to Mary K, who wrote back to tell me there was not a date or a location as of yet, but that the event would probably be moved to Sept. due to weather and red tide considerations.

This suggests to me that this event is in for some sea-level changes -- which I think is a good thing, as it opens up opportunities for this festival to evolve into something bold and completely different in 2012:

Who says SCDays can last no longer than a week? Why not start building large sculptures in Sept., and have them finished and viewable all autumn long, leading up to the traditional amateur & Texas State Championship contests in Oct., to take full advantage of 24 years of tradition? And who says all the sculptures have to be in one location? Why not put them all over town (spreading traffic and parking over the whole island and over a month or longer) and let people seek them out and then vote for their favorites online? Why not have the masters do multiple sculptures while they are here (solo, duo and team) and get more bang for our buck? Why not build contest sculptures indoors (at city hall, the convention centre, the visitors center, etc.) when the weather is not cooperative? Why not start even earlier and have weekly amateur events all summer long leading up to the fall festival? With a little "out of the box" thinking, we could take that same $35,000 budget - lasso in some more funds from the larger island properties who will be able to see direct benefits from their contributions - and create something even bigger that will attract and entertain more people than anything we have done before.

(I would encourage interested parties to google ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, MI - a long-running, very successful contest where different venues host artworks and the public votes for their favorites. There is no reason why this couldn't work as a model for something completely new and different to the world of sand sculpture -- and it could originate right here on SPI!)

This is my area of expertise. I started this event and was fairly instrumental in keeping it going for most of the past 24 years. I have lots of great (and probably some not-so-great ;) ideas as well as the energy and the enthusiasm to help make them happen. But when I wrote the town's activity director and respectfully requested an opportunity to work with the city and share my ideas on how we can make the 25th annual SCDays the best yet, I was told in no uncertain terms that my input and assistance were not needed or wanted.

What if the Sand Castle trail and Sand Castle Days were to work together to extend and grow everything? What if all the people who love sand sculpture and SPI could work together instead of jealously guarding their little territories? Why not really and truly make SPI the Sand Castle Capital of the World?

All I am asking for is a seat at the table and a chance to serve my community by doing what I do best.

This Castle Needs a Forever Home - updates from the sandcastle trail

And so the plan evolves....

I was betting a lot on that mermaid. I spent a lot of time on her. I took things slow, pouring lots of diluted glue into the form to give her a decent shot at setting up quick enough to foil the vandals. I carved her head, and waited, letting them pick at her and patiently repairing every indignity they bestowed upon her. I fenced her in. I posted a pleading sign - "Thanks for not touching." I pressed tumbled glass into her tail to make it sparkle in the sunlight. After she was finished, I sprayed her good -- and almost as soon as I walked away, they took her out. 

Destruction was pretty much complete.

It kinda sorta felt like murder. I grieved. 

And then I pondered...

I had done everything I could think of - short of posting a guard 24/7 - to keep this sculpture around long enough to develop the protective shell she needed to get called “semi-permanent” -- and it wasn’t enough. Is it time to give up on my idea of a Sand Castle Trail for South Padre Island? 

Nope. Not yet. Because I have experienced just enough success to convince me that there is a way to do this!

Here is what I Have Learned:

1. The sculptures that have lasted have been the ones built in yards, tucked into landscaped corners, and created in a park that hardly anyone knows about or visits (the SPI Butterfly Garden.)
2. After a month or two of curing, the sculptures become so hardened that they will stand up to a fair amount of abuse. 
3. High-traffic areas on public property are just not good sites for these sculptures. More people get to see them in such areas, sure. But the terrorists are too numerous, too thoughtless, too darned mean.
4. Private, commercial and/or off-the-beaten-path locations are better. Make people seek them out. Make 'em look at the site, print up the map. Make them think twice about destroying private property.

Conclusions:

To give the sculptures their best chance, they must be protected while they are curing. 

They will cure faster if they are smaller. 

They will be molested less if they are on private property.

I can best protect them while they cure if they are located in my fenced-in back yard. 

If I am going to have to move them, they have to be light-weight and either relatively small or modular so that they can be reassembled in their final resting spots.

This Castle Needs a Home!

Voila! A prototype! This castle stands about 21 inches tall. It has a styrofoam core to reduce its weight -- I am pegging it somewhere between 10 and 20 pounds. When it has throughly dried and hardened, it can safely (I hope believe!) be moved to some sort of pedestal or perhaps it can become part of a larger castle to be installed in some sort of semi-private or commercial location -- which will become the next stop on the SandCastle Trail. 

(The pedestal could be just about anything -- a piece of wood, a rock, a planter -- or it could be made of sand, with a name or whatever carved into it.)

So all I need now is a good place to put this little castle -- and that is where you come in. I am going to give this sculpture away to a good home. If you can suggest “the perfect spot” for this castle, please do so - ASAP. I will take all suggestions into consideration and -- once the castle becomes solid enough to move (which could be in just a week or two thanks to the sunshine and hard, dry wind we are currently experiencing) -- I will install it in its new location and we will see how it fares. Deal?

Please send a description and - if possible - a photo of a good spot for this castle to spisandy@gmail.com at the earliest opportunity -- thanks!

Trail Update - 11/25/11

Well, the flying turtle at city hall is the most recent victim of the sand terrorists. The sculpture was constructed of styrofoam and cement and I’d like to think that the turtle put up something of a fight. Takes a lot of moxie to attack public art directly outside of the police station -- I’m sure it gave the perp a great deal of satisfaction....

In other news: the Turtle Lady has been decapitated and both the surfer and the caterpillar are history. The Angry Birds Tiki and the butterfly castle live on, as does the fish/turtle sculpture that used to be the School of Rock. Or parts of it, anyway.

A less-determined soul would take this as a sign that this trail is just not meant to be -- but I vow to persevere. Some of the sculptures survive, and where the vandal hordes have left sad piles of sand, new sculptures will arise. (And we are looking at options for repairing the flying sea turtle as well.) We continue to learn what works and will be incorporating this new information into creating sculptures that have a better chance of surviving long enough to become truly hard.

But first: I have to go build something lovely in Huntington Beach, CA. I’ll be back on the trail (if the weather cooperates) in December. 

Greetings from Ft. Myers Beach

Hope you SPIslanders are getting out and about to see and enjoy the new sculptures. I am getting ready to compete at the American Championship in FMB tomorrow and will be doing two more contests in the Sunshine State directly after this one -- but before too much time passed I wanted to extend a few great big "Thank Youse" to the folks who helped, including the Sea Ranch Restaurant, Dean & Alita Bagley, Don and JoAnn Evans, the SPI City Council, City Manager Joni Clark and her staff; the super-helpful folks at Public Works and Ken Dunkum for all their help and support. 

Also big thanks to the sculptors who stuck around and worked for far less than they deserved to help me get the party started: Wilfred Stijger, Edith Van De Wettering, Abe Waterman, JOOHeng Tan, and Suzanne Altamare. You guys went above and beyond and it was a whole lot of fun hosting you in my sandbox and watching the gears turn and the sand fly.

And finally huge thanks to Raybo. He is strong and smart and he gets the sand moved and the sculptures sprayed. I couldn't do without him, truly.

What's next -- We will continue to spray magic potion, but with less frequency. The sculptures will get harder and become less vulnerable to vandals. The caution tape will disappear. I may once again open up access to the online map -- or maybe I will make it a challenging game to encourage visitors to seek out the sculptures and discover them for themselves. I might drop clues such as "Go visit the nice folks at Paragraph's on Padre to find out where the closest stop on the trail is." This is an experiment and the rules will mutate.

Meanwhile, three more sculptures have been commissioned (two restaurants and a guest house) and several more are in the planning stages. If you think you are going to want to add your address to the Trail, you should probably talk to me about it soon as these sculptures are only going to get more expensive the busier I get. (And if enough orders come in we might even be able to get Edith and Wilfred back!) Learn more about how you can participate here.

Sand Castle Trail Update: Hey -- its' really happening! Sculptures are rising on the beach at Good Hope Circle and on the landscaped corner of Saturn and Padre Blvd. And how's this for timely: sculptor Joo Heng Tan from Singapore is creating a bust of the Turtle Lady at Turtle Lady Park -- just in time for an unveiling at her 107th birthday celebration on Sun., Oct. 30.

Here is a photo of Dutch carvers Edith von de Wettering and Wilfred Stijger who are creating a multi-media sculpture for the South Padre Island city hall. It will feature a pair of little characters riding on the back of a giant gravity-defying sea turtle.

Announcing the Sand Castle Trail

I am very happy to report that the leaders of the town of South Padre Island in their infinite wisdom have given me the green light to proceed with a Sand Castle Trail pilot program. Over the next few weeks, a half a dozen sculptures will be created on city-owned property by some of the most talented sand sculptors in the world. The sculptures will be treated to withstand extreme weather and casual vandalism, and should easily last through the holidays and perhaps a good bit longer. (As they disintegrate they will be repaired, rebuilt or removed.)

The artworks will be created by some of the talented sculptors coming down to compete in Sand Castle Days, including the following:

Kirk Rademaker (Santa Cruz)

Wilfred Stijger & Edith von Wettering (Holland) 

JooHeng Tan (Singapore) is 

Abe Waterman (Canada)

Suzanne Altamare (Daytona Beach)

and me! sandy feet (South Padre Island)

The sculptures will be built at city hall, the landscaped corner of Saturn and Padre maintained by Ken Dunkum; Turtle Lady Park; Water Tower Park; the butterfly garden south of Suntide II and the Good Hope and Bougainvillea beach accesses.

This project has not asked for or received any money or labor from the town. It has been accepted as a kickstarter.com campaign which will be launching any day now but all donations to the cause are always welcomed -- including meals and fun island experiences for the six visiting sculptors. Sponsoring individuals and businesses will be acknowledged and thanked on the web site.

Watch this space for more details and photos of the sculptures as they progress and visit sandcastletrail.com for the trail map, photos and general information. In the meantime, I hope to see you at the 24th annual Sand Castle Days Family Fun Festival at Clayton’s Resort, Oct. 16-21 -- come by and cheer me on!

Blue norther blowing in

Blue norther blowing in, originally uploaded by sandyfeet.