Point of Decision Vascillation rules the day. Bike ride? Sculpture? Movies? Something else? There's a message on the phone. "Larry, this is Maurice. We had some things come up. Looks like we're going to do the ride tomorrow instead of today, about seven. You're welcome to come up if you want." Dawn's first light is suffusing the sky outside my windows. Low tide is at 0830. The day's activity suddenly condenses around this key nucleus: time. Stop thinking and get out there, even if Rich will kill me; it's too early to call over there.	www.sandhands.com/
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	02F-2 Report

Build number:	02F-2 (lifetime start #230)
Title:	none
Date:	January 5
Location:	Venice Breakwater, south side littoral
Start:	0650; construction time 9.25 hours
Height:	3.4 feet (Latchform)
Base:	1.75 feet, ellipsoid prism due to form's shape
Photo 35mm:	approx 9 exp Provia w/WR
Photo 6X7:	1 roll Ilford 3200 w/6X7 and 100 macro
Photo volunteer:	Rich, w/Canon Z115; Bert, w/Oly IS20
Video motion:	walkaround, detail tracking, atmosphere
Video still:	none
Video volunteer:	none
New Equipment:	replacement small offset spatula

1. Recycle That Pile Tears slide back around my head, carried by the downhill slipstream. The sky to the southeast is a glowing green-blue with lacy grey thin clouds over it. Few others are on the road: newspaper deliverers, bread trucks, and one guy with an overloaded shopping cart in the middle of the street. A few people wander around on the beach. Cold sand burns my bare feet and the water feels warm by comparison. This being a "lightweight edition" sculpture I build in the littoral zone, but, remembering New Year Day, I build the base well above the reach of the afternoon high. Dawn's light is flooding the sky with gold, copper and silver. There is more than the sky can hold; the excess fires the water. Fifty feet away is the stump of the New Year sculpture. Its already filtered sand will give me enough to work with until the tide uncovers the good stuff today. I put it up there, so I can use it again. Even now, four days later and somewhat dried out, the sand is so hard packed that the scoop requires a determined push. Four buckets of sand are all I can get out of the old pile. The other 14 or so have been dispersed and mixed with the ambient. Yes, it's already clean, but it's also dry and that means I have to carry more water than usual. The difference is noticeable, and surprises me. The rest of the sand comes from borrow pits down the beach. Half a foot of overburden has to be removed, after which I can dig up the good stuff and carry it away. Maybe I shouldn't have built so far up. I don't have the cart today because I haven't figured out how to carry both it and the Latchform. A few curious passersby watch my industry from the sidelines. I guess there are still people in town for an extended holiday. After about two hours the sun is high and strong enough to warm my sore shoulders and the form is full. 2. The 8.4 Cubic Foot Challenge (How to Lose a Foot and Gain Stature) Call it my "Winter Form." It's three and a half feet tall because that's how wide the pool plastic is. My old sailcloth form is four and half feet tall. The shorter form saves time in several ways, and time is the limiting factor in winter sand sculpture. Most basic is its capacity: 8.4 cubic feet instead of the tall form's 10.8. It's faster to set up and take down, and I don't need a stepstool to get my arms over the parapet. Taken in all, these changes save about 45 minutes in packing time. You'd think that a smaller pile would also take less time to carve. In some ways this is true. Being a foot shorter, the engineering demands are lighter. Still, the thought would be wrong. Time saved in packing promptly goes into carving. More time to see the sculpture, to think about how to fit things together, to contemplate the design. Some people think my recent sculptures are too short, but they appreciate the design. They don't realize the two go together. I can get away with more pure art without that extra foot of sand weighing it down. Yes, it's harder to photograph, and they really want a taller base, but I like this form factor. Call it the New Small Sculpture Revolution. And I still love showing off that five-second removal. This time Frank is my only witness, sitting in his truck. We'd been talking about beaches and jobs. "I don't like just sitting still, waiting for something to happen. I like making rescues and being in a busy place, and hope I'll be stationed here in the summer." "You'll get plenty to do here." If I ever need a lifeguard's services, I hope I get one like Frank. "I know. The surf was very big yesterday and the day before..." "Even bigger than New Year Day?" "Yes. We had people climbing on the rocks and had to keep warning them." 3. Move Some Sand (The Collision of Ideation and Manufacture) With lesser engineering constraints, shorter sculptures can play around more. Right now I'm fascinated by light. Small holes and ribbed surfaces make for interesting shadows and highlights. Today I'm thinking about a long rib through which light will come when the sun sets. A row of small holes, with the verical rib shaped around the holes. The rib itself will start near the base and curve through three dimensions to end on the far side of the top. The rest of the sculpture will flow from that. So, I pick up the Sand Knife and knock off the top's west edge. Then I carve the rib's outline northward and down, curving it, leaving room for more sculpture on the east side. I hope. By the time the rib is shaped pretty much as I want it, there's not a whole lot of sand left on the east, but I'll be able to work with it by carefully fitting the holes in there. I should have cut that eastern part down a foot or so. Instead, I left it as high as the rib's highest point. I shape it into a set of three arches that end against the slightly overhanging eastern face. The plan is to cut some holes in between the arches. I'm thinking that the rib-and-hole idea isn't going to work because it's turned too far away from the sun, so I need some additional paths for the sunset to play with. The little arches at the top, springing from the back of the big rib, are a problem. I need that Steel Pinky! How do I get in there? With a combination of hand contortions, precarious leaning and creative use of the new little spatula. Finally the spaces are open enough that light can get in and out. Well, at least light can pass north and south. There's a hole on the west, but how about east? Can I get away with it? There's only one way to find out. At the top of each corrugation, where the "eye" would be in a peacock's tailfeather, I bore a hole and then widen it with the little spatula, and lengthen the holes downward. The third one can't get a hole because there's no place for the exit inside the arch complex. On later review other ideas came to me, but at the time I was at the limit. 4. Visitors (How to Socialize with Half a Brain) "What was all the police activity about?" I ask Frank as he rolls up for a tour of inspection. "I saw a boy who resembled the picture of one who's been missing for a week or so, so I called them. I'm a parent too. LAPD is right here so it's no hassle. Wasn't the right boy, though." I was just wondering where the Jewish man and his grandson have been. Well, here they are. The boy's a year older but just as inquisitive, and seeming to be even more active. He still knows everything, too. Wil comes by, but soon after that a girl he knows greets him. This removes him from my world and soon the two of them walk off. Rudy and his wife, on their regular constitutional, greet me. As usual they don't linger. Another man whom I've not seen for a long time stops, Dan, with his friend. "I haven't seen you here for a while." "Yah, I was doing other things. Bike riding, some writing." No point in trying to explain the theory of sand sculpture as antidpressant, and the concomitant result of not doing it. One newcomer is a very animated Asian. "What are you doing?" "Making a sand sculpture." "And you're filming, also?" The camcorder with its big boxy microphone is standing on a tripod behind me. "I mainly videotape the finished sculpture, but I also try to shoot some introductory and additional scenes." "OK. What do you do with the tape?" "At the end of the year I edit all the footage into a compilation, and send copies to friends." "Very good!" He has an interesting pendant against his bare chest, curves making a human figure. "Are you from China?" "Yes. I've lived here for three years, though, working on documentaries. My name's Bing Chin (probable transcription problem here); what's yours?" I introduce myself and hand him an information sheet. "I have to go now! I'm cold." When he and I started talking the wind was warm and dry from the east and I was worried; I can't spray water onto the sculpture fast enough to keep up with evaporation caused by that wind. Suddenly the wind shifted, hitting my back with a salty familiarity. It was cold, too. "What are you finding?" He's the most assiduous treasure-hunter I've ever seen, slowly working his way toward me along the beach. "Bits of metal, cans, trash. I found this today." He shows a nicely made silver ring. "It's a fun hobby. You'll never get rich at it, though." "If you find a couple of sand sculpture tools up there, let me know. I lost them a few days ago." "All right." He walks away, swinging the detector steadily. 5. Polish (I Know Why Ateliers Have Apprentices) "It's amazing how the features become clear after you've cleaned them up. The shadows are sharper, the shapes come out." "Yah. Clean-up is the most tedious part of the whole process, but it's necessary. You can see the sculpture, not the surface noise." He's the other lifeguard but I don't know his name. "I'm not sure I'm going to get the light, however. I need to rotate the sculpture about ten degrees." "Can you do that?" She's been watching for a time. "Only in my dreams. It's too heavy to pick up, and even if you were strong enough it'd never stay together. At least today I have the little spatula, which has become essential for clean up. Its thin edge is good for fine trimming, and its light weight allows control in tight spaces with just a finger and thumb on the handle. 6. Denouement (No One Argues with the Sun Except a Cloud) Well, there it is. The surprise, a gift from the sea. Good sand, sunlight, time, desire, touch. "Why do you do this?" "I like being here. I like sand." "Why?" "It feels good." I hand her a handful of waste sand from the sculpture. "You're right. It does feel good." Gradually the shadows work around eastward. Sunlight hits the inside edge of the rib's tailored holes. Maybe we'll get it. I shoot the black-and-white, and then a few color slides. A cloud attenuates the sun so i shoot the video walkaround but leave the camera set up because I'm hoping for that sunset. The promise in on track. Rainbow dogs flank the sun in the high cirrus. Gaps in the clouds allow unfiltered light to flood the sculpture and it looks good. And then the light goes flat. Just like that. A bank of solid cloud has sneaked in from the north, far off in the west, and just plain snuffed Ralph. I shoot video stills and call it a day. Hungry. Cold. Tired. The sculpture is OK. Some nice parts are there, but as a whole it doesn't quite work and I feel a mild disappointment. The biggest problem is that long rib; the holes work, but the thing is too big and heavy. I should have worked harder on it. Next time. Human Touch Museum Library 2002 Sculpture Index Report 2002 January 6 January 18 (editing and amendment) March 24 (HTML conversion) All contents designed and made by Larry Nelson