98P-13 "Sugar Rush"
98P-13 "Sugar Rush" | |
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| Yesterday's scheduled full-scale sculpture was blown away by a wind from Chicago: Phil came west for a motorcycle ride. What to do? It's a close race, but I do need to get out of town. We had a great time. Today, I dropped him off at the airport after we had breakfast. That large apple pancake was great, but had enough sugar to put me into orbit; the drive home was brisk. I fidgeted. Couldn't sit still. The tide chart suggests a solution, but I'll have to be quick. |
| Build number: | 98P-13 |
| Title: | "Sugar Rush" |
| Date: | September 13 |
| Location: | Venice Breakwater, south side |
| Start: | 0945; building time: approx. 1.5 hours |
| Height: | 3 feet (tallest tower) |
| Base: | 4 feet X 1.5 feet (includes outriding tower) |
| Photography: | end of 98P-12 roll, plus approx 15 exp. E100S w/Pentax WR |
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The tide would sag to about 2.5 feet, then rise in a similarly desultory way. It had been down for an hour or so, and I had to dig a foot deep to get water. Eventually an overachieving wave solved this problem. Still, the drier sand made its mark: the pile was smaller and less well consolidated. After the wave filled the borrow pit, I had good slurry so I made slender towers. One idea was to carve them into a sort of lilly-bulb shape. The pile wound up being a low base with a tall tower and a short one, with a separate intermediate-height tower close to the west end. The lilly-bulb idea got shoved aside as being too simple. I started by carving a long concave surface on the tallest tower, then trimmed it into a panel. Behind it, near the top, was a cove intended to go to a cut on the south side. Below that, the back of the upper cove curved toward the panel, with a hollow behind it. The small parts called for delicacy, the uncertain tide for quick work. Sugar detracted from the former, but was a big help with the latter. What came out was delicate roughness, with some of the original pancake layers showing. I added extensions to widen the base in two places, and this worked. Sand can be added if the pile starts from a flat surface and is built up against the original, then carved to contour. In general, there were lots of in and out surfaces, with tight curves. Even the short tower had a lot going on, with overlapping curves and a right-angle tunnel, one of whose entrances was nearly hidden by the west tower. The west tower was the last to be carved. I rounded its top and cut a long slot down one side. The base was cut in, last vestige of the bulb idea. It went up about 2.5 feet in undulations and overhangs. I carved into the beach below the overhang, but this was filled in by another wave. The middle tower was smoothed into the beach with more sand. Near its base, a panel started, concave curve toward the base, but becoming convex around the ridge connecting the two towers. It ended in an angled cut, beyond which was the lower end of the concave panel on the first tower. There was a cut-through to the lower cove on the uphill side. The result wasn't spectacular except in retrospect. Free-pile sand has a strong opinion about what can be carved; its layers, soft spots and irregular outline suggest soft contours and overlapping parts. With this sculpture and its predecessor, I tried to work against that. Sharp tools enable detailed cuts in the (relatively) poorly packed sand, which help get away from the soft, flowing look prevalent in my free-pilers of last year. This one had tight, surprising curves. It was involved, complex, if not very harmonious. Unpredictable. The only difference between it and a full-scale sculpture is the spread-out plan. This shows great promise, if I can quit feeling rushed. No more cylinder! One reason this anticylindric revolution didn't happen last year is that I did the free-pile sculptures in Santa Monica. As with the bigger sculptures, fine sand works much better. This one and 98P-12 would have failed completely with Santa Monica sand. With a little more development of tools, I can see myself finishing one of these to big sculpture standards. This is neat. Much more freedom. Of course, formed sculptures offer their own freedom: spectacular overhangs and such available only in well-packed sand, but free-pilers offer a zany design alternative: if I want more, I just build more. Size and shape of pile are easily changed. Whoopee! Let's do more! I do, however, need to get used to the timing. Although the waves always sound as if they're right on the doorstep, the tide's rise is usually more leisurely than that. Feeling rushed isn't all bad; it forces me to work quickly with little fussing around. The problem is that design suffers in the rush, at least for now. Still, a succession of waves indicated quitting time. I did a little clean-up, then shot a round of slides. An interesting piece, with some good drama, but too massive. Openings take time. I still liked it, but the rush contributed to an unfinished look. I wanted to keep working. One idea I had: buy a collapsible bucket for situations like this, and carry water to fill the borrow pit so it needn't be so deep, or so close to the water. I could still carry the whole kit in my daypack. Late news: my friend Don gave me a collapsible bucket at work Monday. Sending Email pays. I think the bucket will help with relaxing because I'll be able to build farther from the water. Am I approaching the eight-hour free-pile sculpture? Not if I start with a Dinah's apple pancake. | ||||||||||
Original: 98-Sep-13
All contents copyright 1998 by
Larry Nelson | ||||||||||
98p13rpt.htm 99 February 13