Andreas Amador: Sand Paintings

Working feverishly against time and the arrival of tides, artist Andreas Amador ©Andreas Amadorcreates intricate designs on wide stretches of sandy beach. He first conceives the designs, based on intricate organic-seeming repeated patterns, in a notebook, then he transfers them to a computer where, after deciding which designs to re-create, he reverse engineers them to discover the steps necessary to transfer the designs to the beach.

A single design may be over 500 feet in size. Andreas generally picks a new or full moon, to allow time and room on the beach for his art. Once a design is finished, he climbs to a rocky outcrop (most of his art is created on Ocean Beach near San Francisco) to take pictures before the incoming tide destroys the art Amador has carefully raked into the damp sand, using brooms, rakes, and sometimes, volunteer labor.

Amador's sand-painting remind me of the natural designs left in sand by retreating waves, and of the often beautiful designs of crop-circles, or the interlocking knots associated with Celtic and Hiberno-Saxon art and manuscripts. Andreas Amador has been making these enormous sand designs for about five years now, and estimates he's made over 100 separate "canvases." You can find Amador's Web site here, his Flickr page here, and an article from the Daily Mail newspaper here.