If you want to learn to build sand castles, this is the place to start! These tools were designed by Matt Long from the Travel Channel Show Sand Masters!
02/26/2025
Famous For A Day!
I've been looking through some sand sculpture photos recently and realized that so many sculptures I've done have fun, challenging or disastrous back stories. Over the next (whatever time frame!) I'll be posting some of those images and sharing the stories that go with the sculptures. This first image is a tall ship carved in front of the South Street Seaport Museum. I used 25 tons of sand.
After three days of carving I arrived at the site to find that a few overly zealous partiers had jumped the barricade and destroyed my work. The sails were torn down and about 90% of my work was gone. It was but a few minutes after finding the damage that I was approached by a reporter from the Associated Press asking why more wasn't finished as she was given the assignment three days prior. So I told her my tale of woe and that if she wanted a better photo to come back at the end of the day and I would have more to show. She thanked me and walked away only to return five minutes later. She told me her boss would like to speak to me and handed me her phone. After an interview that lasted about twenty minutes Associated Press TV and Radio showed up to film and do a radio interview. It's way to late to say 'To make a long story short' but the result is that the next day my story was national news with an article entitled "New York Artist Work Destroyed By Vandals". The article appeared in the New York Times and literally hundreds of newspapers around the country. Friends were calling from coast to coast mostly congratulating me for the brilliant marketing strategy. And so I was famous for a few days. Thanks to my friends Greg Askins and Andy Gertler who carved the super cute dolphins in the waves.
