Showcase - Sunday - Sand Sculpture - The story so far

I have been on Steem for around two and a half years and try to be as active as my busy life has allowed. My mission, which I chose to accept is to document each and every one of my ephemeral sculptures of Sand, snow and ice. They survive only as photos on my harddrive and like in a forest with no ears did they actually ever make a sound (I really butchered that saying, but you know what I mean). Discovering Steem has given me the push I needed to give each a story to help them live on.
For #Showcase-Sunday this week I would like to show you some of my favourite sand sculptures which I have posted about so far. I began carving sand in 1996 and at present I have documented over 80 of them. Don't worry, I am only up to 2006 and have many more to come.
Each of these sculptures I look on as a stepping stone to where I am today as an artist. They may not be the most amazing work but each one was a seed of my approach and style.
Clicking on the images will bring you to the post

The Kiss

Art for me is about emotion, The viewer should feel something when they see it. I am not saying it should be one of good or bad, more that it should evoke some sort of reaction. When I made this piece I felt the tension between the two characters as they reach out to kiss but are held back by their surroundings.
Still one of my favourite pieces even though I can see that my knowledge of anatomy was very limited.
It was also one of my first sculptures that came from my heart rather than my mind.

Apathy

Our first sculpture in Dublin castle, a project which we organised and funded ourselves. I took such pride in this project because it was all up to us and our families would come to see us at work, before they had only seen images of what we were up to. It also showed me the power of sand sculpture as an artistic medium. Where people from all walks of life were coming to view it and discussing about what it meant. It was bringing art out of the art galleries and connecting with the normal folk not just those artist types who mostly have their heads up their arses.
It was a two part post which also documented the full process of what goes into creating a sculpture. You can find part two here.

4D Train

With this one I started to experiment with perspective and creating a 3D representation of a 2D view point. The reason why i did it this way was also integral to the meaning of the piece.

Falling Asleep

While in Art College I had spent a year experimenting with kenetic sculptures (sculptures that moved). I was hated by my lecturers for bring motors and computers into an art college and they failed me, meaning a repeat year. For myself also It was a failed experiment as I could not create the mechanisms I wanted due to lack of technical ability and resources. I spent the rest of my college years trying to discover other ways to show movement without actually moving anything. Finally with this sculpture I came up with a way.

The three Norns

And finally this tiny piece thought me to pare things down to their simplest forms. Every element should have meaning and should be crucial in keeping everything else together.

Hope you enjoy reading as much as I do documenting. Happy Sunday
@ammonite