98F-17 "Input/Output"
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98F-17 "Input/Output" | |||
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| There I was, just bumbling along in my usual orbit, when people started asking questions. One from Long Island, with an insatiable curiosity about engineering, the other from Texas, wondering how to build a portable sand sculpture form. Good questions all, and I believe that good questions deserve good answers. Of course, that means I have to find the answers first. The question I have about answers is this: why do they always lead to twice as many questions? |
| Build number: | 98F-17 (Lifetime start #145) and 98P-16 |
| Title: | "Input/Output" |
| Date: | September 26 |
| Location: | Venice Breakwater, south side |
| Start: | 0615; building time: 10.5 hours; depart 1915 |
| Height: | 4.5 feet |
| Base: | 1.75 feet (cylindric) |
| Photography: | last part of 1 roll E100S-135, start of another, 2 rolls TMX120 |
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It's barely light enough to see. There's not much traffic, but a few hardy souls are getting set up for the day's business on the boardwalk. A few people are walking the beach, even this early, but it's quiet. The heavy overcast is just beginning to glow as I start building the base. Good tides gradually arrive earlier and earlier in the autumn. Being picky about my sand, I just show up earlier and earlier, but this is getting close to the limit. It's really helpful to be able to see what I'm doing. Something about the ongoing discussions with Larry and Nita has accelerated my pace of development. Maybe it's having competition nipping at my heels. It's a nice image. More likely it's the discussion itself sparking new ideas for tools and shapes. The most important part might be the implied encouragement, knowing there are people looking forward to hearing about what I'm doing. That's all conjecture. The facts have been showing up on the beach regularly. The start was normal: carry sand and pack it into the tall form. The sand was better than average. Clouds and breezes kept the morning cool. The man who usually pulls his son to the water in a wagon was there with a surfboard this time, but there wasn't much surf. After I started carving, things got a little strange. I could see, in my mind's eye, all kinds of interconnected shapes. There's no sculpture processor to speed up the process of manufacture, so my hands lagged my brain. I had to concentrate. I carved a sort of pinched C shape over the top. Its lower edge wrapped around the sculpture, tucking in below the back of the C. From there the sculpture developed all kinds of complex parts. Rich and I enjoyed watching two women looking for shells in the lowering tide. One of them got knocked over by a wave and came up laughing. I talked with them for a bit; they're from Iowa, here to visit. It still had delicacy. I'd just assembled a Web page about 96F-3, "Weightless," which is still one of my favorites. It's very light and springy. I've been trying to make another one for years, but my ongoing fascination with complexity has always derailed the plan. This sculpture turned into a modern version of "Weightless." Complexity and springiness, in the same piece. It looked as if it would explode at any time, or just leap off the beach. Most of the spaces met in the middle, behind various elements. It had parts from just about everything I've ever made, but in this case they all fit together and worked. The separated loop from 95F-2, the top-crossing arch from 97F-18, even a long leg from way back in the past. I thought that was going to be a disaster when I made it, but it fit. Near the base was a curlicue around a space. The last time I did this, Larry asked me if the hole went all the way through. I can't stand another question like that, so this one is hollowed out big enough to gather daylight. Rich says it would be a great place to roll a ball, so I make two. One goes at the top, the other rolls away from the base, leaving a track. The sculpture also had new parts. A stack of curved pods holding each other up and ending underneath the C arch's open end. Narrow V cuts made possible by sharp tools. The multiple-bend panel with holes that has been showing up more often; one of these days I'll do a sculpture that is just one of these all the way around. In this sculpture, it enwrapped about a third. A curving leg whose purpose was to hold up the back of the C arch, but it added to the design by curving over into another space. Clean-up was nearly impossible, with all the sharp edges, narrow cuts and delicacy. An ongoing process of learning to make the direct tool cuts look good helps with this, but it still takes some getting used to the relatively rough surfaces. But it'd take me two days to polish everything here, and I'm more interested in the overall form. I gave it a light brushing to show the horizons and called it good. It was good, too. Even Rich was impressed, and a succession of passersby stood there and looked. My mother had called earlier in the week to say that she and a friend were coming up to see a couple of museum exhibitions, and invited me to come. I was already committed, so I invited her to the beach, not expecting anything. Shortly after I finished, there she was, with Kay. This is the first one of my full-scale sculptures she's seen in person. Her timing was excellent. It was nice to see her in my world. | ||||||||||
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Ingvar, a co-worker, had been interested for a couple of years. When I told him of this Saturday's plans, he said he'd try to get his wife to come. He'd told her about my sculptures and his wife had started making arches out of sand. He brough out some photographs of her efforts, to her great embarrassment. I told her that everyone started somewhere. As with many beginning sand sculptors, she had no idea of the effect of sand on what they can make.
"There's lots of good sand just beyond the bend in the storm drain. If I had any energy I'd demonstrate." Not long after that, I was doing it, and made an arch to show how it's done. One of the passersby who'd been watching for a time said it couldn't be done. He was wrong. Esther made her own alongside mine, then embellished it. | ||||||||||
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| The sun played hide and seek through beautiful clouds. I tried to remember which part of the camera to point at the sculpture, also trying to take advantage of the changing light. I did the black-and-white last, with barely enough light for focusing. | ||||||||||
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Rich and I packed up in the cool damp air. The sculpture stood proudly. I've wondered for years if I'd ever make anything good enough to be worth looking at repeatedly. This one answers the question. We pushed my bike off the beach, then Rich shot a photograph of it for my mother. Early the next morning I walked to the beach, hoping to get some dawn photographs. No luck. Someone worked very hard in reducing it to a stump no more than 9 inches tall. I can make another. I wonder what it'll look like. I ambled home, photographing clouds and patterns in the sand instead. Beauty is where you find it, and is worth respecting.
Original: 98-Sep-26
All contents copyright 1999 by
Larry Nelson | ||||||||||
98f17rpt.htm 99 February 13