Denise Goldberg's blog

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Images in sand

Oh look! There is a sand sculpting festival in progress at Revere Beach. A simple newspaper announcement caught my eye and drew me in... The festival started on Monday with a demo sculpture that was to be created by everyone working together, and there was a juried competition running from Wednesday through Saturday. I thought about wandering over there today or tomorrow to see the finished sculptures, but I was stopped by my lack of interest in being in the midst of hordes of people. Somehow heading to a beach park close to Boston on a summer weekend day when the weather was forecast to be very hot didn't seem like a good match to my normal habits.

I really wanted to see the sculptures though. Hmmm... what to do?

I decided that there should be enough to see if I wandered to Revere Beach after work on Thursday. After all, the big demo sculpture was supposed to be complete at the end of Tuesday, and the sculptures for the competition would be two days done. As it turned out, that was a great decision. I saw some pretty amazing art in the sand, visited with the sea gulls, and walked on the beach and into the ocean.

OK, OK, walking into the water was a bit of an accident. I was walking while I was looking through the lens of my camera - admittedly not too smart. And as I was walking along the edge of the beach, the ocean snuck up and caught me. The water was surprisingly warm.

The demo sculpture appeared to be pretty close to complete.

Revere Beach sand sculptures

Yet signs of tools and wood-encased sand are seen behind the still-in-progress work.

Revere Beach sand sculptures


The details sculpted in sand are truly amazing.

Revere Beach sand sculptures


Planes soared overhead as they left Logan Airport for places far away. And birds and the ocean drew my camera's eye.

plane taking off from Boston's Logan Airport

sea gull running

waves breaking on Revere Beach


And yes, of course there are more photos! Jump to my Images in sand gallery if you'd like to see them.



If you're interested in more information, I recommend visiting the web site New England Sand Sculpting Festival at Revere Beach. A quick sound warning though - this page is accompanied by sound, the sound of waves crashing along the shore.

And you can read an article about the festival titled Beach beauties published in the Boston Globe on July 19, 2008.