Heaven and Hell - sand sculpture

What does God do all day now that all his work of creating the heavens and the earth is done. 7 days work in the last couple of thousand years seems like a wasted career. Maybe he is off making other universes or is enjoying an extended chill out session after a job well done.

And what of the Devil's work schedule. Is he up to no good or on sabbatical.

The spiritual divide

These were the deep meaningful questions we were asking ourselves during the 2005 Duncannon sand sculpture festival. The idea was to create an exhibit based on heaven and hell and have each side of the tent represent the two domains. Of course the boss of each side had to be present. I made God and Niall Magee the Devil. It said alot about our personal character if you ask me. We each decided on a Chace Lounge pose (if that's a thing) with each creating balance of composition just inside the doorway. Each looking out viewing their kingdom.

I must say that my figure had a quite relaxed pose bordering on provocative. This wasn't intentional but, just the way the grains of sand fell. Although, enticing people to the bright side is a good thing, whatever the means.

The two worlds were abstract with different textural motifs to give them character. Wilfred Stijger (@stijgerart) and Edith Van Der Wetering worked on this with Niall and I joining in when we had finished our figures.

A giant zipper connected both sides, showing that they are intimately linked. You can't really have one without the other.

I added a little Gargoyle and Niall a little Cherub to each side. We really wanted to keep everything in a balance and these characters gave a nice focal point to areas which needed something to break up the larger forms.

The opening of the exhibition was to be at night so all through the sculpture we made little holes in the sand and hollowed out objects so we could place tealight candles to light the way. These balls were made by compacting sand around a balloon which we then popped and removed, leaving a perfect hollow ball to place the candle in.

Light out

During the opening the sculptures looked great lit by candle light. The light and shadows made everything look more complex and mysterious.
I really enjoyed bringing the element of fire into the sculpture and the warm light gave a near spiritual atmosphere to the tent. I was surprised by how the public were so quite as they made there way through the exhibition. It was like they were having some sort of religious experience

I think God himself would have approved.

It is always nice to try something new with sand even if that means bringing other elements into it. Duncannon is a great place to make these experiments as the locals are very open and we always like to give them something new.

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Ps

Thanks for reading. I use Steem to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, among other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Steem blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.

Winter - sand sculpture

Egyptian Scribe - sand sculpture

Mummified - sand sculpture

I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite