A returning feature of the Spirit of the Sea Festival is the work of internationally-known sand and ice sculptor Craig Mutch.
This year he has secured a spot on the plaza just in front of White Rock Museum and Archives for his latest extravaganza – a salute to ‘Lost Cultures’ and their surviving monuments, such as pyramids in Egypt and South America and the great heads of Easter Island – that offers an ideal subject for sand sculpture.
At press time Mutch and fellow sculptor Delayne Corbett were beginning the process of sculpting basic forms in the 14 tons of sand trucked in for the event, and Spirit of the Sea visitors will be able to watch them finishing the details of the complex design during the festival itself.
“People love to see you at work,” the widely-experienced and well-travelled sculptor said.
“I chose these ancient cultures because of the diversity, ethnically and culturally, in White Rock and South Surrey.”
Experience carving a Hindu god as part of last year’s sculpture showed him there was potential in a multi-cultural subject promoting world peace, he said.
Mutch arrives in White Rock fresh from recent assignments in China, promoting the 2012 Olympics, and in Hong Kong, where his work was part of celebrations of the 15th anniversary of the Chinese take-over, as well as commissions in Florida and Niagara Falls.
Mutch said his new piece in White Rock will support the charitable work of city resident Catherine Koch, whose organization, Love Is The Answer, helps orphaned children in Africa.
“I like what she does,” he said. “She gives it 100 per cent of her soul and heart.”
For more information, visit www.loveistheanswer.ca