2022 US Trip – Day 11 (Sand Art in Raleigh)
You have to admire a city that has sand art. Not just because they’ve found someone talented enough to create it and someone organised enough to fund it, but because no bloody local person has got drunk and stomped all over it. I’m afraid I’m not sure that this would have lasted in a lot of UK cities, so all credit to Raleigh for having some permanence to their sand art in what isn’t meant to be a particular enduring technique.
The creator of this sculpture is local man Ed Moore and his company Sandy Feat and he explains on his web-site just how much time it takes to craft these pieces of art. Where possible, he also likes to get anyone passing by involved in the creation and I can imagine that’s quite exciting and especially so for children. It’s not within my limited range of talents to create anything like this, but I can see that it’s something that an artist can really enjoy. They get the immediate response of those walking by, it’s an artwork that appeals to children and they can be endlessly creative with their project.
This all gives me an idea of how to measure the well-being of a city, put a sand sculpture in the main square of every major settlement in the world and see just how long they last before being damaged, vandalised or otherwise faffed about with. The Economist have the Big Mac Index to measure the true value of a currency, this could be the Sand Index to measure the decency of the local population.
