|
|
      |
 |
|
OC Sand Artists Share Their Secrets
 | | Grant L. Gursky | | Randy Hofman puts the finishing touches on one of the Biblical sand sculptures he builds just off the Boardwalk at Second Street. |
Where others see mounds of sand, they see works of art waiting to be shaped and molded into stunning Biblical scenes or fairytale castles or gargantuan renditions of the wonders of the world.
Randy Hofman hopes to help shape souls by shaping the sand along the Ocean City Boardwalk at Second Street. His scenes such as the Last Supper, Noah and the Ark, the Crucifixion have transfixed OC vacationers for years. Mark Venit of Ocean Pines has created his visions of Arthurian legend on the shores of six oceans -- and won international competitions for his works. Sand sculptor George Zaiser, an art teacher at Worcester Preparatory School in Berlin, likes the massive projects like the "Eight Wonders of the World" that he and others carved last year at a sand sculpture festival in China.
We asked the three local sand sculptors to share some of their secrets on this ephemeral seaside art form. It's not as complicated as it looks, they agree, and requires just a few essential ingredients: sand, water, a good imagination, some simple tools.
Build your passion, says Venit, and that probably means not making yet another cliché mermaid or turtle or even castle (unless, of course, you're really into castles, as he is.)
"What should you create at the beach? That's the question," Venit says. "The answer for me is think outside the sandbox. What you might do instead of what you always see at the beach is to create something in sand that you love, that you put your love into, you put your personality into."
So if you love music, maybe you should do a piano or a trumpet; cooking, a favorite dish; cars, a vintage model.
Venit does stunning castles -- dreamstuff for a guy whose living room is filled with all things Medieval and Renaissance.
Hofman, who also is a painter, says it helps to draw a pencil sketch of what he plans to sculpt before he starts working with the sand. He says it's crucial to dig beneath the dry sand -- maybe one to six inches -- to get to the moist sand underneath, then build with that.
And he sprays the sand with water as he goes. "Spray as you go, or the sun and wind will melt away your details," Hofman says. "You go to lunch for an hour, and you come back, all your detail's eroded away."
He piles the moist sand at about a 45-degree angle, then starts his carving from the top.
Zaiser and Venit do more vertical works. Thus the sand must be moist and compacted, so it's dense enough to support what's built on top of it.
"The bottom line for sand sculpting is to make sure the sand is damp and compact," Zaiser says. "From that point -- depending on the size, height, etc. -- you can sculpt virtually anything."
Venit says he builds a "rock-solid" foundation strong enough to support additions like towers and turrets.
"The mistake that causes the greatest disappointment and sadness is not to pack your castle hard enough." he says. "Any type of internal flaw where it's soft inside can bring down a whole day's work in about two seconds."
You need not buy any expensive tools to build with sand. For starters, get a good shovel to dig and a five-gallon bucket (to fetch ocean water, pack sand and maybe to sit on).
Plastic utensils, sturdy plastic cups, a trowel, rakes, brushes, brooms, cake cutters, potato mashers, combs and a ruler or another straight edge are among many everyday tools for creating shapes and textures.
Venit calls a masonry trowel his most important tool. "Any adult who gets that tool will perform feats of daring in sand like they've never imagined they could do," he says.
Building a moat around his castles appears to give them more height, and the shadows create the illusion of greater depth, so he pays attention to the sun's angle and crafts details accordingly.
Even the experts are vulnerable to some of the common hazards -- seagulls, dogs, children, the elements.
"Dogs frequently mistake sand castles for fire hydrants or buckets," Venit says. "Seagulls mistake any kind of sand sculpture for landing strips or bomb sites."
 | | Grant L. Gursky | | Mark Venit touches up a sand castle he built for Dino Scalvounos, who surprised his girlfirend by putting her engagement ring in the castle. |
He and others thwart the gulls with some straight wires placed on top of the sculpture, which scares off birds from landing. Reeds, straws or seaweed will work equally well, Venit says.
And children? If they're busy making their own works, they'll leave yours alone, Venit reasons. So he brings a bucket and a little plastic shovel for them. "I say, 'Here, you go make something.' You hand a little plastic shovel or a Popsicle stick to a kid, and all of sudden, he's an artist," Venit says.
After all the hard work, you can keep your masterpiece intact longer by spraying it with a solution of water and Elmer's Glue.
But there's no reason to despair when your work of art eventually succumbs to the elements.
"It's cool because you can just do it again," says Zaiser. "As long as you have a pile there to work with and you can keep it moist and compact, you can do it all over again."
---------------------
Comments from users:
| JENNIFER | NY STATE | | DIAMONDJC2 AT YAHOO DOT COM | |
I WAS A VISITOR TO O.C. AND SAW SOME OF THE BIBLICAL SCULPTURES. ONE....THANK YOU...AND GOD BLESS YOU FOR YOUR TALENTS.....SECOND.....IT WAS SUCH A GREAT PLEASURE TO SEE THEM WHEN I DID WITH THE CARDBOARD PLAQUARDS....I HAD JUST RECEIVED INFO THAT MY HUSBAND WAS LEAVING ME....IT WAS A VERY BEAUTIFUL REMINDER....THAT GOD IS IN CONTROL. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART. |
| |
Other Stories by Gary Gately
Carousel Rebounds, Dazzles Again
Tourney: Big Fish, Big Boats, Big Bucks
Artists Sculpt Dreams In Sand
More...
More Ocean City Golf Articles
|
|
|
|
Add a comment to this article