Q and A with Todd Pangborn
We had a chance to catch up with Todd after his visit to Kiawah and to pose a few questions to him.
How is the Kiawah Island sand for sculpturing? Kiawah’ s sand is actually quite good. The fact that it is hard packed as the tide goes out is often a good indicator of sand that will work well for sculpting. A very fine, flat grain is the best sculpting sand because it will hold the water much better than a round-grain sand. Most beach sand has been tumbled by the surf and ends up round, thus not the best. Kiawah also seems to have a high silt content that also helps hold the water. It’ s strong, meaning it will hold well when I am trying to get vertical height.
What is your favorite venue for your art? Any place that has good sand and friendly people! Oh, and is warm! As far as beaches go, I would say Siesta Key, Florida, is my favorite. The sand there is pure white and very clean, soft and extremely fine. It’ s probably the best beach sand for sculpting. Also, as long as it is not spring break time, the people there will not destroy the sculptures over night. Kiawah is among my favorites. Everybody is very respectful and appreciative of my sculptures, and I have never had one destroyed. They are allowed to just fade back into the beach.
What is your favorite of all the works you have done? I don’ t know if I could pick one over the others. They all have certain qualities that make each one different. If the spectators like it, I’ m happy.
We see you also do clay sculpture. How much time do you spent on that? Any competitions? I have just dabbled in clay so far. I have made a few busts to work on facial features and used it for laying out concepts for sand competitions. I would like to get into clay more and make some permanent artwork. I just don’ t know what I would make yet. That’ s one of the things I like most about sand, you can make anything you want and it doesn’ t have to be something worthy of“ living on forever.”
What has been your most significant challenge? Time management and trying to do too much. All competitions are strictly timed and it’ s difficult to know how much you can accomplish in the given time in a quality fashion. There is always a balance between wanting to have as much detail in a piece as possible and knowing what you create must be done with the highest quality. Its not a good situation if you need to rush to finish as the quality will suffer.
What is the best part of your hobby? People’ s reactions for sure. It’ s very satisfying to sit back after finishing a sculpture and watching people react as they walk by. They range from joy to disbelief to total indifference. For most people it brings a big smile to their face and that makes it worth all the hard work. And it’ s not bad being on the beach either.
How much time do you devote to sculpturing? Right now I’ m fairly to new the master sculptor ranks, so I haven’ t been invited to many competitions. I’ ve only competed in one or two competitions a year and, they are typically one week long. I will practice at home as time permits but that probably adds up to just a few weeks’ worth. I may also have a paying job or two that are two to three days. Then there are the one or two weeks of vacation time. It’ s extremely physically demanding, so taking time off is a must.
What have we forgotten to ask? Any further comments? All my sculptures and any in competitions are made of only sand and water. There are no adhesives added to hold them up. There are no internal structures to support it. This is the most asked question. Other frequently asked questions are: how did you do that? And, what happens when it rains? My answers are: you start with a pile of packed wet sand and then you remove all the sand that doesn’ t look like whatever it is you’ re making. And water is what holds the sculpture together, so the sculptures actually like rain as long as it doesn’ t rain so hard that the water runs on the surface. NK
WINTER / SPRING 2017 • VOLUME 37
35