Here are the winners from the 2013 Revere Beach Sand Sculpting Festival.
Text courtesy of www.mytreasureisland.org. Photographs courtesy of Joe Siciliano, RevereBeach.com.
Fourth Place – Encroachment by Lucinda Wierenga of South Padre Island Texas.
Lucinda “Sandy Feet” Wierenga has won a modest amount of international fame for her home town of South Padre Island, TX with her sand sculpting skills by leading sand sculpture workshops and competing at major events all around the world fo rover two decades. She has been the subject of numerous print articles and TV shows — If you saw the 2008 episode of The Travel Channel’s “Sand Blaster” series (where they blow up the sculptures) you would have seen her and partner Kirk Rademaker walk away with the big fat first place check. A former high-school English teacher, Lucinda has taught literally thousands of people how to build a better sand castle. The paperback edition of her book – “Sandcastles Made Simple” – came out in 2009 and spent much of the summer at the top of the Amazon.com best seller list in the “sculpture” category. She is sole proprietor of the Sandbox Inn of South Padre Island – a spacious beach house vacation rental where guests can hone their sand sculpting skills under her tutelage.
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Third Place – Listening to Life & Death by Benjamin Probanza of Acapulco, Mexico.
Benjamin’s personal interests are photography, especially themes of nature, stop-motion films, sculpture, toy design, new technology and art in all its forms. He began sand sculpting in 1988 and has won many championships and awards and continues to this day. In addition to sand sculpting he also works in short stop-motion filming, live shows with pictures of sand and light, and short films that use these techniques. Benjamin is a member of the WSSA (World Sand Sculpture Association), with which he won the 2003 WSSA exceptional Lifetime Achievement Award. Benjamin works in different sand sculpture festivals throughout the world.
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Second Place – Listening to Life & Death by Dan Belcher of St. Louis, Missouri.
Belcher has been creating professional sand sculptures around the world since 1990. Competitively, he has won 14 World Championships, including three World Championships (Solo), two World Championships (Doubles) and an amazing nine World Championships (Team). “Sand sculpture is a test,” says Dan. “It can sometimes flow like a dance, and sometimes feel like a wrestling match. Either way, it is an exhilarating physical and creative endeavor.” Dan has a Landscape Architecture degree from Kansas State University, and works in the Architecture/ Engineering field as an Urban Designer in his home town of St. Louis.
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First Place – Let Me Spread Ink by Jonathan Bouchard of .
Bouchard also won Sculptor’s’ Choice.
Bouchard has the utmost respect from fellow competitors as a very creative and competitive person as well as being just a really nice guy. His ideas are unique and well performed. He travels the world making sand sculptures for commercial events and has competed in many competitions throughout the U.S. Always look for something impressive, different and incredible from this very talented sculptor.
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People’s Choice – Step Up by Walt McDonald of
Amazin’ Walter has been featured in hundreds of interviews from local,
regional, and national newspapers and magazines as well as radio and
television. With his daughter Christy McDonald they were a team on the
reality show “Sand Blasters” where 5 of the 8 entries are blown up
with dynamite and must start again with a new block of sand. With
partner SandyFeet he was featured in a “Best Buy” commercial. Oprah
commissioned the amazin’ one for a sculpture in Nassau for O Magazine.
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[slideshow id=9]Photographs courtesy: Joe Siciliano
