sands of time

Yesterday's mail contained an envelope of beach sand from New Jersey (sent by a boyhood friend at my request) for Victor DeGraff to use in a sand painting of Lucy the Margate Elephant, a national historic monument which stands at the beach in Margate, NJ. My friend assured me the sand was authentic, and joked he added extra seagull poop for good measure.

The idea for painting Lucy the Elephant using beach sand was inspired by the sand painting created by Mr. DeGraff of the recently demolished Stage Company building. What makes the painting unique is the building is colored by actual brick from the building, authenticated by the artist and Mary Jo Hanes, of The Stage Company and Sue Mills of Art Lovers Trading Company.

It took ages to set up a process to fill all the orders we expect to receive, but with the help of Larry Weatherford (the dean of Southern Illinois sign & design), a way has been found to make prints of Victor's original sand painting on sand paper! The building in the sand print is also hand-colored with pulverized brick.

A representative of The Bank of Carbondale has agreed to display the original painting, and take orders for prints. It's a fun(d)raiser for the Stage Company. One-third of the $120 price will go to the Stage Company; one-third to Sands of Time, and one-third to Art Lovers gallery, which underwrote the project.