Winter 2024

136 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 4 Croft grew up in Iowa and displayed artistic talent from a young age. Unable to afford art school, he lit out for the West Coast with $200 and a mountain bike, then landed in the Caribbean, where he windsurfed and began playing around with sand sculpture and papier mâché. Relocating to San Diego, he saw some guys building a sand sculpture at the San Diego Zoo and was blown away. “I saw these guys shoveling sand and knew I had to do this,” Croft recalls. “I bugged them to hire me.” Eventually, they did, bringing him on board as part of an 80-person team for the world record attempt in Rio.The hook was set. His work drew the attention of the Travel Channel, and that led to a TV show, “The Sand Guys,” with his now retired partner Kirk Rademaker, that ran for 29 episodes. Translated into three languages, the show aired in Asia- Pacific, Europe and South America. “That put us on the map,” Croft says. The sand Croft uses for these works of art isn’t just regular Carmel Beach sand. As nice as that soft white stuff feels between the toes, the shape of the sand grains is not conducive Other unusual material choices were used to create this piece. In this case, Croft welded bolts, nuts, washers and horseshoes into a realistic dog sculpture. The techniques this Carmel Valley artist uses to turn sand—a material that easily flows between our fin- gers—into solid, three-dimensional forms has been perfected over his decades of working in the form. On a table sits a “vertical sandbox,” a large, rectangular, rustic wood frame containing a palette of finely packed sand on which he carves such things as company logos for events that can be erased and used over and over. Photos: Courtesy of Rusty Croft