The American Dream - sand sculpture

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(Edited)



Who in their right mind would want to be famous? I can understand the trappings that usually comes with it; success and wealth but the idea of being recognisable by everyone and not being able to just blend in must be horrific. Like you have formed a goldfish bowl of yourself with no privacy.

I have probably had my 15 minutes over the years. Working in a small town where everyone knows me as that guy making a sand sculpture. Signing autographs in a jostling crowd of punters in a stadium in China when I got separated from the other competition sculptors or having people stare at me wondering if I'm that guy from Home Alone. (Yes, I look like Marv on a good day) It can be quite unnerving. I am sure the real famous people find it very hard, being always On and having every element of their lives under scrutiny. This, is definitely not something I crave.



What in the world?

2012 in Sondervig, Denmark brought with it the theme of The World. I had chosen to work on Africa but soon after starting I looked around and saw that only three carvers had been left to work on America. It seemed that it wasn't a very enticing destination for most of the predominantly European and Russian carvers. I really wasn't interested in joining either but I took one for the team and moved over.
As a group, we decided on making a sculpture based on the American dream and figured what better way to illustrate it than with thought bubbles emanating from the minds of two people sitting on a park bench. I wanted to do fame and immediately thought of a film star.



Nightmare

I will admit it was not the most inspired piece that I have made but my team wasn't too inspiring either. There was lots of chatting and coffee breaks with words like 'It will Do.' summing up what we were doing. The half-arsed attitude was really quite infecting and try as I could to immunise myself I think I got infected.
This sort of mediocrity made me feel the other extreme of Fame and I would be lying if I didn't say it was soul-destroying.



The whole thing looked OK I suppose but, it really didn't shine. My film star looked alright even with her enlarged jaw. My favourite part was the little smileys surrounding her. I think it was a good solution in order to suggest a crowd of adoring fans.



Bad vibes all round

To be completely honest the overall atmosphere on the project was a bit pedestrian. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that it pissed rain most of the time and it was cold. It may also have had something to do with the fact that we were all very much working on our own separate sculptures on the wall, the overall composition was just a montage of different stuff with no overall story arch.



My sculpture was nobody in particular although that big Jaw reminded me a bit of one of my favourite film stars, Sandra Bullock.





Ps

Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.

Dinosaurs rarrrrr! - sand sculpture

Sandcastles me arse - Sand sculpture

Evolution abridged - sand sculpture

I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite

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For a long time I've been following you and you've never disappointed. Each sculpture is better than the last. Quite the talented dude.

Eh, I remember one time you toured in and around Israel. We did that last year. Our guide was Palestinian, we toured through West Bank and Palestine, too. That guy was one of the nicest, most hospitable people we met while touring for two years. I can't say enough good things about him.

Just thought I'd tell you. Great dude. He actually pulled me aside at one point and told me my wife and I are welcome at his house any time and that he'd like to make us dinner. I told him the same, any time he should find himself in the states, he has a place to stay.

Just so happens Mujadarra is one of my favorite dishes and Palestinians make it with garlic--yum. 👍🏿

Thanks for keeping our feeds interesting @ammonite.

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Hi, Thank you so much. Yes, I remembered we talked before. So happy you enjoy my Blog. It is great fun for me to do this and it has become my main time spent on the internet.

I remember finding Isreal very interesting but also a very awkward place to visit especially as I learned more about the situation with Palestine. Unfortunately, I never got to travel to Palestine but would really love to if one day it becomes possible. Such resilient people. So happy to hear you had a good experience over there and thanks for paying me a visit.
If you are ever in Ireland I'll make you some nice Irish stew.
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Yep I reckon being as recognisable as a lot of famous people are would kind of suck xD

Unless you're the type that like that kind of thing and some people seem to, I've met a few people over time that fancy themselves celebrities that everyone cares about o_O

Love the crowd of little emojis XD

I don't know whether you've infected me now but I can see where your feelings that everything was a bit lacklustre (perhaps the weather set the mood, or everyone was not as enthused as they should have been for whatever reason) are coming from. They are still technically good sculptures at least :)

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You win some, you lose some! It was a strange year for that project.
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The people from a team really matter. Attitude is infectious. Being famous comes with the downsides. I prefer to have privacy more than status

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I usually like my privacy and think that if I ever did become rich and famous I would also become a recluse.

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