Sand Art: First Tests (A Creative Game of Aspirations, Inspirations, Perspirations, & Hopefully Collaborations)

Here I am, bumming around Florida, working photographic adventure projects, writing music, and now beginning to draw giant geometric experiments in the sand.

I have so much to photograph around here in such a short amount of time that my daylight hours must be spent wisely-- especially usable "golden hours", overcast days, which receive an even higher priority as valuable time when they coincide with low tides. One of my favorite parks to photograph here features an unusual beach, not the kind of beach that anyone would swim at, not a beach filled with white sand, but a beach lined with strange lunar-appearing rock formations and giant bricks of "coquina"-- a soft limestone filled with shells that was used to make forts which could absorb the impact of cannon balls during battle. I will certainly post about that beach, a place I've photographed many times-- but not for about 7 years. I spent my first Florida sunrise on that beach, and spent the morning taking thousands of photos.

But right now my mind is juggling so many creative possibilities-- and first and foremost I am excited about these experiments in sand art. I will make time for the nature shots, landscape shots, portraits, wildlife shots, etc. But each creative outlet must wait for its name to be called on my list of passion-priority list of ideas to manifest.

Overview of my very first sand art experiments, a good majority of the work already having been washed away by rising tides.

I'd like to be clear that these are nothing to be proud of, I had no plan, no designs. I showed up this afternoon with a couple tools and the intention to find out how they could be used to create different textures, lines, and shapes on the different textures of sand I had available to work with. Then after I was completely out of time, I put the tools away and prepared one of the flying cameras to inspect my sand experiments from the only perspective that could answer the questions I had for myself-- "what worked, and what didn't?"

Yes, the entire time I was experimenting, digging my tools into the sand, I had no clue which of my pursuits were at all worthwhile. I had hardly any idea how the drawings would appear from above, how deep to dig, how large to design, or how much detail would be noticable. Now, after just an hour or so working in the hot sun this afternoon and then filming the experimental works from above, I have a much better sense of what to focus on next time. Tomorrow.

Sitting and waving at my own remotely-piloted aircraft from atop one of my experiments. Even from this close distance, with an angle that brings out the depth and contrast of my sand grooves, much of the detail is not apparent. But that's a mistake to be expected, I had put a lot of focus on things that might not work, to find the things that did work. That's what creativity is about-- experimentation, improvisation.

My impulse was to write and rant for hours about what it means to be creative, what it means to behave like a human, what it means to behave like an individual. And I was doing just that, but I reeled myself back in. As useful as my philosophies about experimentation/improvisation are to me, this post doesn't have to include all of that. I'm mainly pointing out that these sand drawings I did are rather shitty because I had absolutely no expectation for it other than to conduct a bunch of experiments to get a better idea of what works for next time.

"That art sucks, man! What is it, your first day?" Yeah, it literally is.

Don't bother worrying about what kind of twisted version of our future world will have a status-seeking peon bullying a new guy to elevate himself at Sand Art Inc.-- the part of my brain that acknowledges culture has a vivid cartoon-imagination that just parodies all the sickness of human social behavior all day. Maybe one day I'll be surrounded by people who seek to elevate themselves with internal work rather than attempting to ruin others around them to make themselves appear better without actually bettering themselves by way of comparison, on that day maybe the channel of satirical cartoons in my head will flip to something a little less critical. Yikes, where is my mind?

Side note: these sand fleas are driving me nuts. (That's what I'm told they are)

Before I share the last image of my own half-assed first-day experiments, I'll share some sand art from another creative. Some inspiration for myself, and some visual proof of some other types of designs can be drawn into beach sand.

Photo and art credit to Sean Corcoran.

This one was also posted by Sean Corcoran. I highly recommend the film advertised in this one: 'Fantastic Fungi', it's beautifully filmed, full of amazing CGI visualizations, and will blow your mind with insightful information and recent scientific findings on fungi. I've followed Paul Stamets' work for 10+ years, figured I knew everything that would be covered in the film, but I was still blown away.

One last image of my afternoon's experiments. That's all folks. I'll be back out there in the sand tomorrow. I don't know quite what I'll be inspired to draw, but piano keys, mushrooms, and sacred geometry come to mind as possibilities. Maybe the first thing I'll draw is a big sign that can be read from the ground inviting the other beach-goers to collaborate.