Englewood, Florida. January 2011.

We welcome the snowbirds back from up north, where the current weather is abominable. Cold weather has also reached down to Florida but at least the temperature has not dipped way below the freezing point and we are scheduled to be back in the 70's in a couple of days.

In November the first Master Sand Sculpture Contest was held at Siesta Key in Sarasota. The event was held over a four day period and featured master sculptors around the country and around the world vying for $25,000 in prize money.

With temperatures around 80 degrees for all of the days of the competition, it provided sculptors, viewers and beach goers wonderful weather for the event. Siesta Key is consistently ranked with the top beaches in the world, but it's baby powder fine white sand made up of 99% quartz crystal is great for walking and sunbathing, it creates its own problems for the sculptors.

To combat the sand from blowing away, because of it's fine qualities, a mixture of water and glue is sprayed on by the artists and the sculptures are being created.

Winners of the competition were:
Sue McGrew and Sandis Kondrats with their sculpture "Circle of Life". (Shown below)

Second Place went to John Gowdy and Matt Delbert for their sculpture "Let Us Be" (Shown below)

The Sculpture depicts the plight of the sea turtle caught in a fisherman's net.

Follow this link to see more on sea turtles.

                        

Third place was awarded to: Brad Goll and Jon Woodworth for their sculpture of "The Grinch Stole Thanksgiving First", shown below.

 

4th Place and winner of the Mote Award went to Matt Long and Kirk Rademaker for their sculpture of "Nasal Passages", seen below.

Second Place, People's Choice, "Dragon Sleeps" went to Amazin Walter and William Lloyd

To see more of this magnificent contest press this LINK