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

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