Sand masterpieces win prizes in Arts in Action festival sculpture contest. Festival, sand sculptures, open today.
Published 12:01 am Sunday, July 28, 2013
PORT ANGELES — Master sand sculptors have decided who is the best among them in the “Going to the Zoo” sand sculpture contest on Hollywood Beach.
The 11th annual Windermere Sand Sculpture Classic contest is part of the free 48th Arts in Action Festival that continues from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today on and around Port Angeles City Pier at Railroad Avenue and Lincoln Street.
People’s Choice
The public can choose its favorite sand sculpture through today by visiting the sand gallery on Hollywood Beach — admission is $2 for adults and free for children with adults — and voting with quarters.
People’s Choice awards will be announced later this week.
Arts in Action is sponsored by the Port Angeles Nor’wester Rotary Club.
“Vote early. Vote often. All the money goes to Rotary,” said sculpture contest coordinator Bert Adams, a master sand sculptor from Vancouver, Wash.
Admission to the Local Team Gallery, featuring a sculpture by Merrill & Ring, is free.
The five master sand sculptors competing in this year’s contest also served as the judges in the juried contest, with results announced Saturday afternoon.
Contest winners
Here are the results of judging:
■ First place — Damon Farmer of Versailles, Ky., “Do Not Feed the Bears.”
Farmer also created a display sculpture outside the Windermere Real Estate office at 711 E. Front St., Port Angeles.
■ Second place — Sue McGrew of Tacoma, “Momma’s Baby.” McGrew was the 2012 first-place winner.
■ Third place — Brent Terry of Seattle, “Have an Ice Stay.” His hollow igloo impressed his fellow sculptors and judges. “It was a how-the-heck-did-you-do-that kind of thing,” Adams said.
Other sculptors with creations on display are Craig Mutch of Vancouver, B.C., with “Tribal Zoo” and Sandis Kondrats of Latvia, who made “Zoom.”
Cash prizes were given to the top three winners: $300 for first place, $200 for second place and $100 for third place.
The contest presented by Windermere Real Estate is also a qualifying contest for the World Championship of Sand Sculpting.
Community team
Although the Merrill & Ring creation is the lone community team sculpture, visitors can express their appreciation through voting with quarters.
Phoenix Dragon Martial Arts had been announced as another community team, but the team didn’t participate this year, Adams said.
Adams gave lessons to personnel at both businesses in 2012, when the first community teams built sculptures in the sand gallery.
Adams didn’t create a sculpture at the contest. His students made the sponsor logos in sand at the entrance to the sand gallery, he said.
Vendors, car show
In addition to the sand sculpture gallery, Arts in Action offers nearly 50 vendors of arts and crafts, food, music and a car show with more than 30 classic and modern Porsches on display today.
