 Castles in the Sand
Meet Earth Artist
Sandy Feet
The ageless sand is her medium, the surf and wind her constant companions - as she weaves her art like a wizard of childhood dreams. She is the Queen of Sandcastles, in a land of drifting time...
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Many great people were born to be great. Einstein had his moments. So did Mozart and Beethoven. Shakespeare wasn't bad with a quill and a bottle of ink. Rembrandt could make colored oils look like masterpieces, and Patton could go through a refinery of motor fuel faster than Houdini could untie a straight jacket in an undersized linen closet.
 But none of them - as far as we know - could carve a work of art out of the earth like Sandy Feet. This South Padre Island transplant-native can pile up a mound of sand and within hours transform the earth into something magnificently pleasing to the human eye.
A retired school teacher, Sandy is impassioned with molding soft earth into art and has gained a respectable reputation as one of the great sandcastle builders of our time, having won scores of major competitions around the world.
Author of several books on the subject, most notably her new hardback, Sandcastles Made Simple, Sandy teaches all ages - and from all walks of life - how to build the kind of sandcastles they only dreamed they could make when they were kids.
From young children all the way up to Winter Texans who make it to the Southmost beach in Texas for a seasonal visit, Sandy has been teaching her art to just about anyone who has the time and inclination to "get down and dirty" on the beautiful beaches of South Padre Island.
 "I reckon I have taught more people how to have more fun on the beach by building better sandcastles than pretty much anyone else in the world. Everyone needs to be good at something," Sandy says.
In addition to her love of sandcastles, Sandy is a web designer and maintains a great site including a web log about - well, yes - sandcastles that she maintains passionately when not traveling around the world to compete in competitions. She also is the creator and web artist behind SPIOnline, an Internet site dedicated to life and times on South Padre Island - a site well worth the visit.
But perhaps one of her greater accomplishments has been the development of the annual Sandcastle Days event staged on South Padre beaches, which happens every October - this year scheduled to take place Oct. 20-23 at the Sheraton South Padre Island Beach Resort. Sand sculptors from around the world converge on the Island each year to compete in this prestigious event.
Take a moment and appreciate the artistry of this colorful and profound Island artist as she creates art from the earth. All photos are the property of Sandy Feet.
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Rio Grande Valley
