Friday, January 29, 2010

Monday, January 11, 2010

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Monday, January 4, 2010

January 4, 2010: 10P-4

This day was the first official day of my retirement, after 25 years of working for the City of Los Angeles. Intending to stay for two year and pay some bills, it ended up, though a concatenation of accidents, opportunity, ability and lucky breaks, as a career.

This was a Monday. Normally I'd have gotten up at 0430, eaten breakfast, caught a bus downtown and done my job. As it was, I did a sculpture.

"Because I Can"







Sunday, January 3, 2010

January 3, 2010: 10P-3

Here's a note I found in an Email archive. I didn't write reports for these.
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 The window was narrow but the weather was good. I've rarely dong sculptures on Sundays due to needing to be reasonably alert and non-post-sculptural on Monday but that requirement no longer holds.

If you're asking what happened to 10P-2, there are no phootgraphs of this small demonstration arch I made for some chiildren on January 2. I'd been helping them with some sand construction. They were curious about making larger structures.

Sore of back and not all that alert I went down Sunday to do one for myself. Sand was mediocre so I had to be very careful.
 










2017-11-23: Note from Email archive added

Saturday, January 2, 2010

January 2, 2010: 10P-2



If you're asking what happened to 10P-2, there are no phootgraphs of this small demonstration arch I made for some children on January 2. I'd been helping them with some sand construction. They were curious about making larger structures.




Note in the Tidelog says "Demo arch done for Analie."


2017-11-23: added notes from Email archive

Friday, January 1, 2010

January 1, 2010: 10P-1

There's no formal report for this one, but I did write about it in an Email to my friend Jane. Blogger even flags my post-sculptural 2010 spelling errors.
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Today's sculpture started from an idea I've had for a time: contrasting directions in the top section and bottom section. Sand was OK. There was a layer of decent sand under some coarser, and over a layer of even more coarse. So, I tried to stay out of the very coarse but still got some. Still a pretty good pile when done, and I started shaping the top into the semi-independent part I wanted.

The Penguin Swimmers took off while I was building. This year the lifeguards put on quite a show: four lifeguard boats shooting water from their cannons, and a rescue helicopter doing a low pass at a nearly 90-degree bank over the beach. Then the swimmers took off with hooting and hollering. Not surprising... the water was chilly. By our standards.

I finished building the pile and started shaping. I finished shaping the top and started cutting into it. Got the initial cuts made and then started deepening them, aiming to connect. But I'd chosen a design that was beyond the sand's capability; a big piece broke off as I carved. Well, now what. No way to recover with that big hole in the side. So, I removed the wreckage and tried to fill in, but the sand never sticks. Then I had an idea. I cut the whole top off, mixed some slurry made from the best sand I could find in one of Larry's buckets, and rebuilt the top with that. It ended up being a few inches taller than the original and I was afraid that would make the whole thing kind of gangly, but the end result was good. Much better sand, and I could do better shaping. I still broke a couple of small bits, but those became part of the design. In the end, I liked it.

Not needing to be anywhere, I just sat down. Very tired. Seemed to be a chance for nice light near sunset. Larry walked around, taking much more video than needed and shooting zillions of photos. He was there to get ready for a sculpture tomorrow, which involved digging up some of the good sand and hauling it above the tide line. I just left him to it... and when the wonderful sunset light came on like a searchlight in pink, I shot some more photos of my sculpture. Ah, I love that late afternoon light... a caress from the sun, showing all the curves, limning everything both softly and sharply. My eyes love it.

And then I left Larry to his delving. I stumbled off the beach. Managed to get home without trouble. <G> Didn't even get lost. Had soem dinner and then washed the sand off. Thought about calling you instead of writing, but I think I'm talked out for today. <G> I'd called my sister and mother eralier... to tell them I'd retired.












2017-11-23: Found the Email archive and added the notes