A photo essay: Winners of The North American Sand Sculpting Championship, a featured event in the 37th Virginia Beach Neptune Festival were announced Friday evening. The event is one of the world's largest sand sculpting competitions.

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Winners of The North American Sand Sculpting Championship, a featured event in the 37^th Virginia Beach Neptune Festival were announced Friday evening, Sept. 24. The event is one of the world's largest sand sculpting competitions.

The Virginia Beach Neptune Festival Boardwalk Weekend is held annually on the last weekend in September, and is recognized as one of the Top 100 Events in North America. The festival takes place along the oceanfront boardwalk, from 2^nd Street to 36^th Street. Over 500,000 visitors attend the festival each year.

The invitational sand sculpting competition with a cash purse of over $50,000 drew artists from 11 countries. The Neptune Festival invites participants who have competed and placed well in other respected sand sculpting competitions.

Professional sand sculptures are judged according to skill of construction, originality, strongest impact, and overall presentation. Competitors have 24 hours over three days to complete their sculptures.

The third place prize for Solo Professionals ($3,000) went to "Poor Planning" by Walter MacDonald.

John Gowdy (Italy/N.J.) won the $5,000 for first place in the Solo Professionals category for "Love Never Grows Old." A retired firefighter, he is now a professional artist, painting and carving in both marble and sand. Gowdy conducted free "No Hassle Sandcastle" clinics on sand sculpting which were open to the public prior to the festival. The Neptune Festival also offers an amateur competition for schools, businesses and nonprofessional freelance sand sculptors.

Edith van de Wetering and Wilfred Stijger of The Netherlands won $9,000 for first place in the Team professionals in the master's division for their sculpture, "Carpe Diem."

Edith has been a sand sculptor since 1993 and is her 4th year competing at the Neptune Festival. Wilfred has been a sand sculptor since 1989. They won 1st place at the 2009 International Sandskulpturen-festival Rorschach, Switzerland.

Carpe Diem also took the Sculptor's Choice and Neptune's Choice awards for Team Professionals.

On Wednesday Sept. 22, the various forms packed with sand that lined the beach gave little clue to their imminent incarnations as Jill Harris and Thomas Koet (USA) prepared for their sand sculpture.

Harris and Koet's "Flamenco" won the fifth place prize for Team Professionals ($1,000).

The fourth place prize for Team Professionals ($3,000) went to "Celtic Sisters" by Karen Fralich (Canada) and Sue McGrew (USA).

The unassuming forms filled with sand that would become the Celtic Sisters waited patiently on Wednesday.

The sculpture developed as Fralich and McGrew worked on it on Thursday.

More details were added on Friday.

On Saturday, striking details can be seen in the Celtic costumes and on the quietly expressive faces.

"Neptune Saves the Day" by Sandis Kondrats and Uldis Zarins (Latvia) addressed the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The oil spill was also the topic of "Save the Sea" by Sudarsan Pattnaik (India.) It won fifth place for Solo Professionals ($1,000) and depicts King Neptune rising from the Sea to discover oil spillage. It also won the Neptune's Choice and Sculptor's Choice Solo awards.

The second place prize for Solo Professionals ($4,000) went to Rich Varano for "Cascadia: A Sand Fantasea."

The fourth place prize for Solo Professionals ($2,000) went to "Glory Lost and Restored" by Matt Deibert.

Helena Bangert's magical ride on a seahorse, "Going For A Ride," received the sixth place prize for Solo Professionals ($500).

The second place prize for Team Professionals ($7,000) went to "Together Forever" by Jonathan Bouchard and Jacinthe Trudel.

"Old Navy" by Meredith Corson and Dan Doubleday won the third place prize for Team Professionals ($5,000).

Inspired? Water and sand are your main ingredients - just head to the beach with some buckets, carving tools and spray bottles to practice up for next year, or build a virtual sandcastle at http://www.virtualsandcastle.com/home/index.aspx

Other festival events range from sporting activities such as golf, volleyball, tennis, the Sandman Triathlon, and the 8K run and surfing competition, to the art and craft show, which alone attracts almost 300 exhibitors and a wide variety of food vendors. The Boardwalk Weekend also includes the Grand Parade and three outdoor stages featuring concerts and other entertainment. In addition the NAS Oceana Air Show takes place during Neptune Festival season and regularly hosts the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, or Canadian Snowbirds.

The event is held annually, on the last weekend in September, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where visitors are welcomed by the colossal statue of King Neptune on the boardwalk at 31^st Street.

RESOURCES

For more information on the Neptune Festival: http://www.neptunefestival.com

Websites of participating sand sculptors:

Thomas Koet and Jill Harris www.sandsational.com

Dan Doubleday and Meredith Corson www.sandingovations.com

Karen Fralich and Sue McGrew Burlington www.sandqube.com

Rich Varano www.sultansofsand.com

John Gowdy www.jgowdy.com

Walter McDonald http://amazinwalter.com

Lucinda Wierenga www.sandyfeet.com

NOTE: Lucinda is the author of the book "Sandcastles Made Simple: Step-by-Step Instructions, Tips, and Tricks for Building Sensational Sand Creations" available on Amazon or on her website above.

Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

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