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97F-8 | ||
| Build number: | 97F-8 (lifetime start #112) |
| Date: | March 29 |
| Location: | Venice Breakwater, on the flat |
| Height: | 4.5 feet |
| Base: | 1.75 feet, cylindric |
| Photography: | some color neg of ruins with XA2; some E100S w/Nikkormat |
Rich Johnson has been coming to the beach and helping me since the summer of 1995, after I did the slide show for the Camera Committee. His help is always appreciated, but more so on days like this one when the sculpture was too adventurous and fell over before I could photograph it. He takes "safety shots" as the work progresses and, for the roughly 10% of my sculptures that fail, obtains the only record. All the images on this page are from his negatives.
Rich also offers good-natured criticism, and dares me to carve more holes. With him around, I have to stay honest; he knows when I'm being conservative. Of course, that's a moving window. As he's said before, "This one looks conservative, but last year I'd have said you couldn't do that." Sand sculpture is learned hands-on, from making mistakes. In the first part of the year I made a variety of sculptures, but they all seemed too cylindric. I wanted to make one that looked like a sculpture instead of something decanted from a soup can. The day came up bright and sunny, which always calls people to the beach. They roamed around, asked questions, did the usual beach activities. I kept working, with long forms and wrapped elements. It looked good. I liked its outline, and the strength of its forms. Unfortunately it asked too much of the sand's strength, and started to crack behind the seriously overhung wrapped part. There just wasn't enough support. I called time and started to clean up. Brushing very lightly and quickly, I got it pretty well finished. About five seconds later it failed, with the whole overhung section coming off, leaving roughly half the sculpture. Well, it was finished for a short time. Because it failed after completion, it got a build number. I'm glad Rich got these photos. I still like this sculpture. | ||||||||||
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Original: 98-December-12 (direct to HTML)
All contents copyright 1998 by
Larry Nelson All photographs by Richard Johnson | ||||||||||
97f08rpt.htm 99 February 14