This Virtual Exhibit i chose to do it on the art of Sand Sculpting. While sand sculpting two basic ingredients are needed, sand and water, so most sand sculpting takes place near a beach. Some sand is good for sculpting and some is not so good. Good sand is dirty with silt and clay mixed into it. This makes it easier to keep the sand together when you are forming irregular shapes.
The first few sculptures I’ve chosen to show were created by Radovan Zivny. Radovan Zivny was born November 23, 1973 in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic. In 1992 he studied at the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He worked as a painter and a sand sculptor, then in 2002 he entered his first international sand contest. He continues to enter contests all over the world. When not competing he lives and works in Portugal.
This sculpture i believe was made in the year 2000. Though i am not sure i would also guess that it was created somewhere in Portugal because that is where he lived at the time. This Sculpture is called Gulliver. It comes from the story of Gulliver’s Travels. It is very nicely detailed and a pretty massive looking sculpture using the lamp post beside it for scale.
This is another work from Radovan, it is titled The Bedouins. He created this in 2006 at the Sultan of Sand Worldwide Sand Sculpting Service. Bedouins means desert dwellers, they live in different places around Northern Africa. This sculpture shows the Bedouins moving to a new area where there is water and food.
This piece is called The Swimmer. Radovan made this at the International Sand Sculpture Competition in 2007 where he took 2nd place. He got the idea for this from a newspaper article about the world famous B.C. swimmer Brian Johns. This sculpture is of a man swimming and lifting his head above water to catch a breath or air.
The next three sand sculptures will be from Dan Belcher. Dan lives in St. Louis, Missouri his home town. He got his bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Kansas State University. He had his first professional sand sculpting project in 1990, and since then he has been working with the best in the world. With his team he has won 2 world championships, along with three solo world championships in 2005, 2006, 2007.
This sculpture by Dan Belcher is called Apollo. This is the sculpture that won him the world championship of 2005 in BC Canada. This sculpture is of the Greek God Apollo. The sun is behind him, this is because Apollo is the god of light and the sun. I really like how detailed he could get with the muscles and wavy hair of Apollo with sand. Its really amazing.
Jack & the Beanstalk, is another great sculpture from Dan Belcher. Inspiration for this comes from the old fairy tales where Jack gets magic beans and grows a massive beanstalk and at the top is a Castle in the clouds where a giant lives. This sand sculpture is pretty big, and again i just love the detail work he did with the castle and the people.
The final sand sculpture is called No Room at the Inn. This comes from the bible when Jesus is about to be born to Marry and Joseph and there is no room for them to stay anywhere. Dan created this in Jesolo, Italy while working with Sultans of Sand. I like how he even sculpted a few angles watching over Marry and Joseph as they found there way.
Dan Belcher info from
ampersandworkshop.com/resume.html
Dan Sculpture info and pic from
ampersandworkshop.com/sand_sculpture.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo
Radovan Zivny info from
radovanzivny.cz/info_en.html
Swimmer sculpture info from
sandemons.com/pne2007.html
The Bedouins sculpture info from
sultansofsand.com/09scrz.html
