Who in their right mind would want to be famous? I can understand the trappings that usually comes with it; success and wealth but the idea of being recognisable by everyone and not being able to just blend in must be horrific. Like you have formed a goldfish bowl of yourself with no privacy.
I have probably had my 15 minutes over the years. Working in a small town where everyone knows me as that guy making a sand sculpture. Signing autographs in a jostling crowd of punters in a stadium in China when I got separated from the other competition sculptors or having people stare at me wondering if I'm that guy from Home Alone. (Yes, I look like Marv on a good day) It can be quite unnerving. I am sure the real famous people find it very hard, being always On and having every element of their lives under scrutiny. This, is definitely not something I crave.
What in the world?
2012 in Sondervig, Denmark brought with it the theme of The World. I had chosen to work on Africa but soon after starting I looked around and saw that only three carvers had been left to work on America. It seemed that it wasn't a very enticing destination for most of the predominantly European and Russian carvers. I really wasn't interested in joining either but I took one for the team and moved over.
As a group, we decided on making a sculpture based on the American dream and figured what better way to illustrate it than with thought bubbles emanating from the minds of two people sitting on a park bench. I wanted to do fame and immediately thought of a film star.
Nightmare
I will admit it was not the most inspired piece that I have made but my team wasn't too inspiring either. There was lots of chatting and coffee breaks with words like 'It will Do.' summing up what we were doing. The half-arsed attitude was really quite infecting and try as I could to immunise myself I think I got infected.
This sort of mediocrity made me feel the other extreme of Fame and I would be lying if I didn't say it was soul-destroying.
The whole thing looked OK I suppose but, it really didn't shine. My film star looked alright even with her enlarged jaw. My favourite part was the little smileys surrounding her. I think it was a good solution in order to suggest a crowd of adoring fans.
Bad vibes all round
To be completely honest the overall atmosphere on the project was a bit pedestrian. I think it had a lot to do with the fact that it pissed rain most of the time and it was cold. It may also have had something to do with the fact that we were all very much working on our own separate sculptures on the wall, the overall composition was just a montage of different stuff with no overall story arch.
My sculpture was nobody in particular although that big Jaw reminded me a bit of one of my favourite film stars, Sandra Bullock.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Dinosaurs rarrrrr! - sand sculpture
Sandcastles me arse - Sand sculpture
Evolution abridged - sand sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite
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