Last Exit Before Oblivion

A day at the beach. I arrived around 0830 and set up. I thought there was good sand all over, but it turned out to be a tease: a thin layer of good sand over very coarse material. I ended up mixing the fine sand, scraped off the surface through a lot of work, with coarser sand from beside the sculpture about 50-50. That's why you see such pronounced layers in this piece.

It's also why I had to scrap the original plan for this one. I wanted to build on what I'd done two weeks previously, but the sand wasn't strong enough for those delicate internal structures. I went back to an older plan, basically two slabs leaning on each other, with finer carving in the surfaces of the slabs. The perimeter would serve as pillars to hold everything up.

And then the Holy Spirit took over. I saw the sand in a new way and carved this one differently. On the west is an area of overlapping slots and legs, which played with the late afternoon light very nicely. On the east I had simpler shapes, but they were carved from a surface that was about half an inch thick. I also carved some internal structure.

It all fitted together pretty well. I've become more creative in the last year, under God's influence. I find this fascinating. Why does he care? I'm glad he does. It's not like he does the carving, but he does keep me from falling into ruts. Gives me nudges, helps me see the sculpture in a new way, helps me be patient.