20P-5 (February 6)

The tide window opened, and the weather had been disappointingly calm and clear. That's no guarantee, but an earlier walk on the Santa Monica beach had shown me decent sand there. I miss walking in the rain, but storms do remove the sand. Trade-offs. I decided to go make a sculpture.

The sand was an odd mix of fine and medium that felt finer than it acted. Water drained out fast. I had to work very fast in piling to keep everything together, and the pile was relatively narrow and short.

I had this idea for a plan based on a rounded triangle. The sand was good enough to hold edges if I were careful. Then I wanted the spaces to work with the edges.

I also wanted to hide the sculpture's free-piled origin. The only sign of that left is the taper. The long hollow curve in there because I liked the way it felt, and looked.

The flat top didn't contribute much, so after a round of photos I made some small balls as a finial.