PORT ANGELES — A Sequim man’s idea will inspire sand sculpture artists during the Windermere Sand Sculpture Classic at Arts in Action on July 22-24.
“The Wonderful World of Sports” will be the theme of the annual sand sculpture contest.
“My wife and I love coming to see the sand sculptures,” said James Shelley.
“I was looking at the previous year’s themes and remembering what we’d seen, and it occurred to me that no one had done something with sports.
“So that’s what I proposed, and I tried to do it so each sculptor would be able to make the idea their own.”
Shelley will receive $100 Downtown Dollars compliments of the Peninsula Daily News and receive VIP passes to the sand sculpture gallery, with the opportunity of meeting the sculptors.
A selection committee of Nor’wester Rotary, which hosts the annual Arts in Action street fair, selected Shelley’s idea from 194 entries.
During April, the Peninsula Daily News asked readers in both Clallam and Jefferson counties to submit their entries.
“As usual,” said Doc Reiss, a Nor’wester Rotary organizer, “we got a great response from people in each county.
“Every year, we see fresh, new ideas, and this year was no exception.”
The judges looked for an idea broad enough that it could be interpreted by the field of sculptors with little if any duplication, Reiss said.
Shelley’s, the only one he submitted, caught the attention and imagination of the judges, Reiss said.
Eight world master sculptors, seven from the U.S. and Canada and one from Latvia, will each transform a semitruck-load of sand into museum-quality works of art on the beach next to the City Pier during the contest.
“We’ve thrown a couple twists into this year’s event as well,” Reiss said.
“Normally, Charlie Beaulieu, one of the top 10 sand sculptors in the world and the guy who has helped us put this together now for about a decade, would do a display sculpture following the theme.
“This year is different. One of the ideas submitted was for a tribute to the Olympic National Park and the Elwah Dam removal project.
“When Charlie saw that, he asked if he could create that tribute,” and Nor’wester accepted the idea, Reiss said.
The $351.4 million Elwha River Restoration Project includes the $26.9 million decommissioning and removal, piece by piece, of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams by Barnard Construction Co. Inc. of Bozeman, Mont., a job that will begin Sept. 17.
The Elwha Dam was built in 1913 to supply electricity to Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Poulsbo and the Navy shipyard in Bremerton. The Glines Canyon Dam and hydropower project was built in 1927.
Both were constructed without fish ladders.
The purpose of taking down the dams is to restore the river’s once-thriving salmon run on more than 70 miles of the river’s main stem and tributaries.
Olympic National Park officials plan a celebration for the weekend the work will begin and have invited President Barack Obama, rocker Jon Bon Jovi and actor and environmental activist Robert Redford.
None have confirmed attendance.
“The dam removal project is unique, the largest in the world and a first of its kind,” Reiss said.
Kickoff of dam fete
“Beaulieu views the opportunity to create a work of art as a kickoff to the park’s planned celebration that begins in September of this year,” he added.
Karen Hannan, an art enthusiast, submitted the idea “Mountains and Rivers Without End: The End of an Era,” Reiss said.
Organizers also hope that Ian Morris, a sidewalk chalk artist from Victoria, will contribute to the event with a depiction of the Port Angeles Downtown Underground in front of the Conrad Dyar Memorial Fountain.
