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Florida State Competitors

Suzanne Altamare ~ Daytona Beach, Florida

   

Grand Master Sand Sculptor making a living sculpting sand for 25 years. Specializing in soft sand (sand that is not compacted in any way). Daytona Beach resident. Seen on the Travel Channel on Sand Blasters 2006 and 2007.

Katie Corning ~ Fort Myers Beach, Florida

   

Fort Myers Beach's own Katie Corning is an award-winning master sand sculptor and celebrity competitor on the Travel Channel's television hit, Sand Blasters III. As a full-time professional and owner of Sand Magic Sculpting, she travels extensively, carving sand all over the world.

Katie's background includes a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Arts degree from Auburn University, Alabama. Although she has worked in metal, stone, wood, glass and clay, sand has been her focus and passion since she was introduced to it a few years ago.

Mark Flynn ~ Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

   

Mark Flynn is a long-time castler from northwest Florida's Gulf coast. Up until 1999, Mark entered the occasional local contest, never stepping beyond castles, although these did become more elaborate.

The prize for winning one local contest, with the help of his wife, Shannon, was a weekend at Seaside, FL. While enjoying that prize, Mark wandered down to the beach, as castlers and carvers are apt to do, and was fascinated by a visitor from Atlanta carving four people sitting in a hot tub. The light went on: there is more to carving than castles, people, animals, sea life, monsters, dragons.

1999 saw Mark's first entry at a masters level contest in St. Petersburg, Florida. Since then, he has tried to visit Port Aransus and Fort Myers Beach every year, and a few others randomly. His proudest result was the "Judge's Favorite" trophy at Seal Beach, CA in 2002.

The last four years have seen springs and summers chock full of sand sculpture. Mark gives sandcastle lessons to resort guests, and a wide variety of commercial gigs, on the beach, or lawns, or indoors.

Karen Fralich ~ Burlington, Canada

   

Karen is a professional sand sculptor with 12 years experience. She began her sculpting career in a pottery studio in Guelph, Ontario in 1983. In 1994 a mutual friend introduced her to a professional sand sculptor. She spent the next 4 years learning the rudiments of sand sculpture while still working full time in the service industry. In 1998 she entered her first international contest and by 2001 she was working full time as a free-lance sculptor.

To date, Karen is a 2 time world champion and a 2 time North American champion of sand sculpture. She has participated in 53 sand sculpting competitions all over the world and won many titles.

John Gowdy ~ New Jersey

   

John has been carving sand for over 20 years beginning his professional career in Ft Myers Beach back in 1986. Along the way he has won many natonal, international, and world sand sculpting competitions.

He has won this event before, along with winning the the people's vote.

"I love Ft. Myers Beach. I feel at home here....maybe it's the sand...maybe it's the bikinis... maybe it's the tiki bar... or maybe because most of my friends have retired from their jobs in Jersey and moved here. Someday I will join them."

Chris Guinto ~ Key West, Florida

       

The coolest sand-sculptor in the entire world.

Randal Harvey ~ Centennial, Colorado

   

I have been competing in Sand Sculpture Events for the past 9 years and always enjoy sculpting on the best natural beaches in the U.S., Fort Myers Beach

Living in Colorado offers sculpting in Ice, Snow and Sand as we have the largest sand dunes in the world located at the Sand Dunes National Monument (soon to be designated a National Park). With dunes over 300 feet in height its a great place to practice.

Most of my work in the last 3 years has been commission projects such as the Colorado state fair, Rocky Mountain Wine and Jazz festival, Malls, Home Shows, private parties and ice sculptures for weddings and corporate functions.

Sand has always been my favorite medium because of the detail that can be achieved in the finished piece and of course flip flops instead of Snow Boots. I look forward to the great weather and competition in Fort Myers.

Thomas Koet ~ Melbourne, Florida

   

It was eight years ago that Thomas first started sculpting sand. He immediately loved how quickly you can make a really nice sculpture that is liked by people of all ages. Within months his hobby got out of hand and he became serious about sculpting sand. His very first solo competition was right here in Fort Myers Beach.

Together with Jill Smith he is a partner in Sandsational Sand Sculpting. Although they travel all over the world, their private sand box is in Melbourne, Florida. You might remember seeing them on the "Sand Blasters" TV show on the Travel Channel, winning the first prize with their memorable "Bank Robbers" sculpture.

Patricia Leguen ~ Saskatoon, Canada

       

Patricia Leguen was born in France and moved to Saskatchewan in 1983. She has been sculpting snow, ice, sand and fire sculptures all over the world since 1991, winning numerous prizes and has been featured in several documentaries in Canada and abroad. You can see more of her ephemeral work at www.artistsincanada.com/leguen.

When she is not sculpting, Patricia runs her own business as a conference interpreter across Canada and as a translator, rides her Harley all over North America, rows her single on the South Saskatchewan River, and travels the world.

Michel Lepire ~ Charlesbourg, PQ

   

Sculpture Michel Lepire inc. was founded in 1994 by Michel Lepire. From a hobby, the sculpting of snow, ice, sand, fruits and vegetables finally got the better of Michel Lepire's career in the restaurant business.

In 1998, this passion for sculpting has turned out to be contagious when son Marc joins in the family business. For Michel and Marc Lepire, this passion takes them all around the world in various competitions and exhibition fairs. Traveling, meeting people and receiving awards are incredible incentives that this father and son team wants to share with you.

In 2002, Michel was proclaimed World Champion by the public at the World Championship held every year in Vancouver.

Matt Long ~ Staten Island, New York

       

Matt is the designer of Can You Dig It Sand Tools and The Can You Dig It Sand Tools Super Deluxe Sand Sculpting Kit. These are the first and only mass produced patented tools for sculpting sand at the beach. In 2005, Can You Dig It Sand Tools were selected by the Parent's Choice Foundation as one of the Best Twenty Five Toys of the Last Twenty Five Years, though they are far more 'tool' than 'toy'.

Matt's been sculpting sand for about twelve years but only as a professional since 2002. Matt has been commissioned by an array of companies and organizations including, Atlantis Hotels, Nickelodeon, The PGA Tour, W Hotels, and The Curacao Department of Tourism.

Best known for sand sculpting work he does in New York, Matt carves several 9/11 anniversary sculptures each year, including one at the site of the World Trade Center for the NYFD Tunnel To Tower Run. Can You Dig It Sand Tools sponsors several amateur sand sculpting contests nationally and organizes and produces the Cape May Amateur Sand Sculpting Contest in Cape May New Jersey: the official site of Can You Dig It Sand Tools origins.


David O'Brien ~ Arlington, Virginia

   

David O'Brien lives in the Washington, DC area and has participated in Masters-level sand sculpting for over ten years, including solo and team contests as well as projects in the U.S. and Europe. He first became interested in building castles out of sand as he was growing up in Florida, and this interest turned into a more serious pursuit when he lived in California. Many of his sculptures have featured educational or historical themes and figures, and occasionally involved current events or political satire. When he's not sculpting sand, David manages several scientific research programs.

Jim Richardson ~ Palm Bay, Florida

   

What started out as just a fun day, playing in the sand at the beach has turned into a unique and exciting career. Jim Richardson, wife Sandy, and 2 friends entered and won the grand prize in a local sand sculpture contest in 1981. But it wasn't until 1985 that Jim's career in sand would finally "take shape". Through what can only be described as an act of God, Disney World called looking for a sand sculptor and asked Jim to come over and be part of the entertainment for a convention beach party. They somehow had seen pictures of the contest 4 years earlier and tracked Jim down.

Over the last 18 years, Jim has won many sand sculpture contests, has worked with other sand artists on large projects, and has traveled from British Columbia, Canada to Nassau in the Bahamas to "play in the sand".

Jim is assisted by his wife Sandy (yes, that's right, Sandy). She is an inspiration both in her ideas and creativity as well as in her name.

One final thing: Jim is the only adult on his street with a sandbox all to himself.

Rob Tobey ~ Kissimmee, Florida

   

Rob Tobey has been performing Sand Sculptures in America for over 16 years. Rob works under the DBA of United Sculptors of America (USA) as a Master Sand Sculptor who travels across the country, designing and sculpting shows with other members of the USA sculpting team.

Most of his sculptures have been carved as live shows and promotional exhibitions at malls, festivals and state fairs. USA has carved sand in 27 of the 50 states. Rob was responsible for the 400 ton Sandasaurus built in Salt Lake City, UT. Sandasaurus was one of the largest Sand Sculptures ever created inside of a mall. The sculpture attracted over a million visitors in a six month period and featured over 15 different species of realistically carved dinosaurs.

Rob specializes in carving nature, fantasy and architectural scenes.

Marianne van den Broek ~ Key West, Florida

   

Marianne has been sculpting sand on and off since 1999. Even though she runs a tour operation business in Key West, she still makes time a couple of times a year to visit competitions and gets her hands dirty. Returning to Fort Myers after 3 years she knows to bring darker shades this time to work with the bright white sand. It's so white it almost looks like snow...

David Walker ~ St. Augustine, Florida

   

Dave has been building sand structures for several decades, first learning to pile and drip sand on the shore of Lake Michigan. The Walker brothers learned more about sand structure in Galveston, TX and built their first arches there in 1980. Since then, he has taken his abstract style all over the country and won contests in Texas, Florida, South Carolina, and Indiana.

While Dave calls Indiana and Texas home, he has lived in Florida for 24 years. He manages three lake and wetland restoration programs in northcentral Florida for the St. Johns River Water Management District.

Amazin Walter ~ South Padre Island, Texas

       

Amazin' Walter has been building castles for money since 1985 when he was invited by the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau. His first "Masters Solo" competition was in Ft Myers Beach.... "I love the sand here, it flies" said the amazin one... "I have built some of my most beautiful pieces here... I'm back!

Brian Wigelsworth ~ Sarasota, Florida

   

I've been creating in one medium or another my whole life. I've played in sand since I can remember but only started taking it serious as an art form the last five or six years.

I placed 1st several times as an amateur in the Minneapolis Aquatennial Competition. Then when I moved to Sarasota with my beautiful wife, Trudy, I got involved in the Siesta Key event placing 1st three straight years, until I discovered this Ft. Myers Competition. I competed last year and took 1st in the Florida State catagory.

This was the catalyst for 10 or so paid carves this past year with Sandlubbers, a company I started with a local sand sculptor from here in Ft Myers, Bill Knight. This will be my first time competiting as a Master and I'm just excited to see all the fabulous artists who get involved in this wonderful event. I am in awe of their talents.

Florida State Competitors


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