99F-6 "Beyond the Zebra"

It's a dangerous book. How dare Dr. Seuss suggest there's more to the world than can be contained in the usual 26 letters? It's commonly available in libraries, right under the noses of a thousand unsuspecting librarians, waiting to claim adherents. "On Beyond Zebra" worked its way into my mind and never let go.

Build number:	99F-6 (lifetime start #162)
Title:	"Beyond the Zebra"
Date:	June 19
Location:	Venice Breakwater, south side
Start:	0830; building time 9.5 hours
Height:	4.5 feet
Base:	1.75 feet (cylindric)
Photography:	one roll RA w/LX and 85mm

Some design clarity is beginning to show in my sculptures. After spending over a year trying to pack in every idea I could think of, now I'm building simpler models in my mind. These can still be interesting because the time saved by making fewer elements can be used in making those elements more interesting: a subtle twist, hanging ends, shaping details within the overall element. A sculpture with fewer hard parts may contain more space, and the space can itself be interesting. Today's idea starts with a Y-shaped element from bottom to top, with a corrugated arch spanning its arms. I should have done it Friday, but even after all these years of disappointment I still believed the newspaper's statement that Saturday would be cloudy all day. Friday was, Saturday shows signs of being sunny as I ride to the beach. It's a historic day. Five years ago exactly I made my first sculpture after a 7-year hiatus. In those years everything has changed, from piling technique to carving tools. Most of the changes have been in the direction of increased complexity and definition, the products of thinking about what I'm doing. Each advancement in piling and tools enabled finer detail and faster work, culminating in last year's 11-hour sculptures. I've learned a lot. Now I need to feel my way again. The sand is full of rocks, but fairly consistently fine. With the beach having eroded down at least a foot, I can't haul sand over the storm drain so I choose a building spot on the south side. As I work people start setting up their towels on the beach; it looks like the start of a busy day. i work the borrow pit westward, skimming the best sand, but encounter "crab sand" close to the storm drain. The little sand crabs are advertised by the way retreating water flows in ripples. I don't like digging them up; they're filtered out of the pile, but too many of them are killed by the shovel. After a body-surfing break, the year's first due to water which has been cold but is today reasonable, the carving starts. First I remove sand from the top, making the facet that will become the Y's arms. Below and to the right I carve a broad concave to start defining the Y's upright but it remains a sketch until I remove enough sand on top. I carve the top into a graceful curve, tucking its east end behind the truncated right arm of the Y. The other arm is full-height and presents design problems that I defer. Let the subconscious work on it while I sketch in the arch and begin cutting it. On a whim I curl its ends into the space, and leave a cusp inside near the top. With the top pretty well roughed in on the south and punched through to the north, I need to figure out what to do on the lower north side. Here, distractions become a problem. The beach is busy, many people talking at times, and some of the shapes take on familiar default. One default is complexity, which leads to fussy small parts that don't fit well with the rest of the piece. After this one, I'm moving to Friday. Even without distractions I have a problem with the bottoms of sculptures. Most of my effort and design go into the top; making one that's "good all the way to the ground" is very difficult. Maybe I should just make them a foot shorter. A weird guy walks up, making faces. Oh, that's just Rocket. But who are these normal folks with him? "Launch, these are my parents." "Oh. Nice to meet you" "We've heard a lot about you." "Has Rocket been telling stories again?" "Yes. How the heck did you end up here, after starting in Kansas?" "The short version is, it's hard to ride a motorcycle and do sand sculpture there in January. I came out here for a job, stayed for the climate." The talk wanders along; his parents are lively and have a great sense of humor. There's still sand to move. Rocket and company wander off; he never stays in one place very long. Rich shoots a round of safety shots at about 85%, after I cut through behind the Y's upright, and heads off to his shape-note singing. Clouds borne on the brisk west wind shade the beach, cooling the area, leading to a gradual thinning of the crowds. Jim drives up in his brand-new bright yellow truck. Ford lost out to Nissan this time, which is fine with the lifeguards. "Where've you been?" "Manhattan Beach. We were searching for a lost 12-year-old. Found him, too." He shakes his head and drives off, eyes alert to avert more disasters like the one that started his day. The design is done. Now it needs detail work and clean-up, polishing here, subtle reshaping there, rubbing the arch's corrugations smooth. This doesn't work out quite as I'd wanted; they should be deeper and stronger, but that'll have to wait for next time. As usual, walking around the sculpture brings up lots of "Why didn't I do it THIS way?" thoughts. Its best part is the south side. The Y and its arch look good, the result perhaps of thinking about it a lot and working carefully. It could also be due to carving that at the start, when my mind is fresh. Still, the sculpture is far from a flop. It's just that my standards have risen. There are too many part of this one that I've done before. Maybe, however, I should try this idea again and try to iron out some of the awkward parts. Finally the clean-up is done. I make a pad of sand and sign it. Clouds cover the sky, softening the light nicely. "Hey, Larry, there's someone over there looking for you." "Oh, yes? Does he have a gun, Jim?" "No. Says he works with you." Hmm. Maybe this is Homey. Or Carlos; i ran into him one day. I look beyond the truck, and see Verej, the overall manager of the City department where I work. He's brought the whole family down, wife and two children. They leave after visiting briefly; they're not prepared for the quick chill wind. I now have the beach pretty much to myself. I amble around the sculpture, resisting the temptation to take a tool to it here and there. With review come more ideas for how to solve design problems, but there's not much light left and it really is getting cold. Earlier in the year I was feeling that I'd exhausted my design alphabet. Now it seems the zebra has kicked me into some new areas whose exploration should keep me entertained for some time. I laboriously push the bike across the sand, considering new designs.

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