Saturday, February 1, 2014

Who Knew Sand Could Be so Beautiful?

Yesterday I read an article on a website called Viralnova and it talked about a man from San Francisco named Andres Amador. This is a short excerpt from the article about Andres Amador's unique art: "He doesn’t paint or sculpt. He prefers a medium that is temporary but absolutely beautiful: a sandy beach at low tide. He uses a rake to create works of art that can be bigger than 100,000 sq. ft." After seeing the pictures I was blown away!

Here is Andres with a rake (his instrument of choice) and a picture of him standing in the middle of his "canvas."
Andres said that his art is, "more about the process and less about the result" and that he "knows it will be temporary." While making his beach murals, he uses a rope as a guide so that he can make the geometric patterns. (I was wondering if there was some special trick or technique he used to make them so perfect, especially in the picture below.)
He even offers his services, helping people propose. (I wonder how much he charges?!)
According to Andres, his masterpieces only take a couple of hours once the tide is low enough to create the designs. 
By raking up the wet sand at low tide, he is able to make contrasting sand colors. (I'm glad the article addressed that because I was really curious how he achieved contrasting colors.)
When asked WHY he does it, Andre gives the best answer… “The unanswerable question! Its fun. I get to be at the beach.”

It's amazing to think what one man can accomplish in a few hours with a rake, some rope, a lot of patience, an incredible amount of talent and the ability to see the big picture throughout the entire process. I think these creations definitely have spiritual parallels if you think of them in that context. If a man with a rake can create these beautiful sand murals, the possibilities of what the rest of us can do with our time/talents are endless!

2 comments:

Julie said...

Wow, what a talented bloke Andres is! These are brill:)

I wonder if Andresgets upset when the tide comes in & washes them away. I know I'd be upset:)

I used to take my bucket & spade (not sure what they're called in the US) on every holiday when I was a child & spent hours building sand castles with my brother.

We always sat & played on the sand - & altho this was great - it was also great when we got older & were able to both have a deckchair to sit on:)

Thank you for posting this. Andre is really talented.

Julie said...

Whoops, forgot to edit a couple of things there. When I wrote Andre I was thinking of the British singer & presenter Peter Andre:)

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