Ask sculptor Matt Deibert to pick his favorite creation from more than two decades of artistry and depending on the day, he might choose his ambitious David vs. Goliath piece, though sentimentally it's hard to overlook his Miracle of Life that celebrates the pending birth of one of his children.
Deibert's designs are breathtaking, thought-provoking and award-winning on an international level. Yet there's no evidence of any of them except for photos. Each was either bulldozed shortly after completion or it simply washed away.
That’s what happens when you sculpt using grains of sand.
Deibert is among 32 artists who will compete in an international sand sculpting competition, the signature event of the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival at the Oceanfront. The festival includes more than 40 events, including Boardwalk Weekend Sept. 27-28.
Deibert grew up playing in the sand on the Atlantic City, New Jersey beaches and has competed in nearly every Neptune sand sculpting contest since 2001, placing multiple times as a solo competitor and part of a tandem.
The temporary nature of his art doesn't hinder it. In fact, "I kind of love it," he said. "It's something we all know from the get-go."
A retired fire captain with a degree in graphic design, Deibert remembers the day he spotted a colleague at the station leafing through a book of sand art.
"I want to do that!" Deibert announced.
Turns out he was talking to John Gowdy, a world-renowned sand sculptor for 35 years. Gowdy offered Deibert a chance to join him that coming weekend to do the grunt work needed to create a logo in sand for an event.
Deibert arrived, enthusiastic to shovel literal tons of sand in preparation for the build.
"How do you think you could do at lettering?" Gowdy asked him.
Deibert was confident as his fine art skills were hands-on, honed well before the digital age. Gowdy sketched out the Atlantic City logo for Deibert and walked away. When he returned, he was not only surprised but impressed.
"Wow! That’s pretty good, dude!" Gowdy told him.
Deibert entered his first contest later that year in Myrtle Beach and he's only gotten better since. He has finished first in team events at the Neptune Festival, in Quebec and in Atlantic City. He and his oldest son, Ian, won "Sand Wars" on the Travel Channel in 2012.
"When I'm passionate about something, I'm like a hawk," said Deibert, who in 2017 started Sandcreation LLC, which offers interactive lessons, team-build events and grand-scale productions in sand.
Professional sand sculpting bears little resemblance to a day at the beach making castles with toy shovels and plastic buckets. In addition to the United States, competitors coming to the Neptune Festival this month hail from Canada, Latvia, Ukraine, Russia, Hungary, Belarus, South Korea, the Netherlands and more. They have 30 hours over four days to complete their work, all built under a tent to prevent wind gusts from ruining sculptures in progress.
Despite the endless playground of sand on the beach, artists build from imported sand that contains a small percentage of clay and a finer grain than beach sand, making for a stronger base for sculpting. In all, 900,000 pounds of sand is trucked in for the event that carries a total prize purse of $58,000, the largest prize in the country, according to festival organizers.
Sand sculpting has its own vocabulary, starting with the pound up – preparing sand for carving by compacting it into a hard, moist block. Deibert will spend the entire morning and possibly some of the afternoon that first day on the pound up.
"You can't use enough water on Virginia Beach sand," he stressed. "You want the sand nice and moist. I tamp a lot. That's kind of old school, but it works for me."
Carving follows and Deibert works right until 5 p.m. of the final day. As his designs have grown in sophistication, he usually sculpts them in clay prior.
He travels with a backpack of tools, including a palette that he's ground to fit precisely in his hand. He brings several as they tend to get lost in the sand. He wears a lanyard straw around his neck that enables him to blow away debris quickly.
Finished sand sculptures will be on view at 7th Street from Sept. 27-Oct. 6.
The $7 admission fee is cash only and must be purchased onsite. Master sculptors will also host free clinics on the beach at 6th Street all day Sept. 28-29 with sand, water and tools provided. No reservations are available, and space will be limited.
