Building objects out of sand on a beach might sound like something little kids do just for fun, art teacher Eric Cannon said there are a lot high school students who can learn from it.

“Students learn a different approach to sculpture while still applying a lot of the same techniques they use in ceramics,” Cannon said. “They learn about the idea of public art.”

The students found that sculpting with sand came with its own difficulties and soon learned after arriving to the competition that working with sand and clay are significantly different.

“Sand is definitely more difficult than clay due to the fact that sand has no plasticity like clay,” senior Jordan Lott said. “You can’t ‘add’ or ‘subtract’ sand like clay so if you mess up you have to start over or go with it.”

Unlike other art competitions students participate in, this event is a live contest where, several schools from Texas meet in Port Aransas to put their sculpting skills to the test up against one another.

“I believe that he wants to show that physical sculpture goes beyond just clay,” Jana Cordero said.

Cannon found out about the event through a friend of his and believes this competition should become an annual UIL type event for the ceramics and sculpture students. It has provided an event for the ceramics students to actually put their skills to the test through a competition based solely on sculpture skills.

“I heard about the competition from my friend two years ago, who competes in individual sand sculpting competitions around the country,” said Cannon “This year, he was in charge of the amateur competition in Port Aransas.”

Though this year was the first time for some ceramics students, others who participated last year were able to transfer some of their learning experiences over for this year’s competition. They claim that their experience helped them to develop their competition piece better this time.

“This competition helped develop patience with sculpting,” Lott said. “You can’t just go and in 30 minutes, create something spectacular. It’s tedious and time consuming.”

As soon as the group gets onto the sand, they work together in order to establish a strong foundation and then sort of split up to work on different parts of the sculpture. They believe that their combined efforts helped them achieve the ranking they won.

Overall, the ceramics students enjoyed their trip to Port Aransas and encourage other students to join the class for the opportunity to go.

“The trip was amazing, not only were we a group of friends going through a bonding experience,” said Lott. “But we were also gathered together on a beach to create spectacular things.”