1Then come down to Port Angeles’ Hollywood Beach from noon to 2 p.m. today and Saturday to be taught by a pro, artist Charlotte Kolff from Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The demonstration is part of the seventh annual North American Masters Invitational sand sculpture competition.
The competition is the main event of the Arts in Action festival put on by Nor’wester Rotary Club.
The festival, which tips its hat to several forms of art each year, also includes 12 bands that will play Saturday and Sunday at City Pier and an “anamorphic art” display in front of the Conrad Dyar Memorial Fountain at Laurel and First streets.
In 3-D
Anamorphic art becomes three dimensional when viewed through a camera lens, even a cell phone camera, from the right vantage point.
Artist Ian Morris of Victoria is creating the illusion of an orca coming out of water in a chalk drawing.
Morris began the display, expected to be complete by Saturday, at The Landing mall on Wednesday.
He scrapped that piece and moved to the fountain after he found that the chalk wasn’t sticking as needed because of a finish applied to the floor, said Arts in Action organizer Doc Reiss.
While beginning the work at The Landing on Wednesday, Morris referred to the piece as his “largest and most ambitious.”
Morris said the illusion is simply created by using certain angles and lines.
It’s mostly “fun parlor tricks,” he added.
At the sand sculpture competition, a panel of four or five judges, including Clallam County Commissioner Mike Chapman, will determine which of the seven artists will win first, second and third place.
But it’s members of the public that will determine who walks away with the people’s choice award.
Viewers can pay a quarter per vote, or $1 for five votes, at the competition.
Reiss said the votes cover about the total cost of the award, which is $750.
The artists began the “pound up,” which consists of compacting the sand, Wednesday and began sculpting Thursday.
Fans of the competition will likely recognize many of the artists.
This year, five of the seven artists have entered the competition before.
Artists Carl Jara, who has attended each sand sculpting competition at Arts in Action, referred to it as the “single most talked about event” in the sand sculpting community.
“I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” he added.
What makes this event so special, is how the organizers cater to the artists, Jara said.
“Pampered is probably a better word,” he said.
The sand itself well known, said artist Sue McGrew of Tacoma.
While what she is sculpting was “top secret” Wednesday, the first-time entree at the competition said she may try something a little more difficult than usual because the sand, which is trucked in from Silverdale, should be able to hold it.
About 75 tons of sand is used for the competition and displays, Reiss said.
Separate from the competition are two sand sculpting displays, one at The Longhouse Market at 7 Cedars Casino, which is an orca as depicted in Native American art, and another at the Windermere Real Estate office in Port Angeles, which is an Egyptian pyramid.
Both are being made by world-renown sculptor Charlie Beaulieu of Kingston and Greg Jacklin.
Beaulieu, an advisor to the judges, said the judging is based on use of sand, how the sculpture relates to the theme, degree of difficulty and a “wild factor.”
The wild factor is “how it grabs you” when first viewing the sculpture, he said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
