Using nothing more than a rake, San Francisco Artist Andreas Amador produces geometric designs and patterns on the beach. During low tide, Amador uses the rake to etch designs on to the beach, exposing the wetter sand and causing a color difference between the raked and unraked sand, hence making the designs more prominent. In order to get his geometric patterns in perfect symmetry, he uses a rope as a compass. However, he has no set technique for perfecting the more “organic” designs. His works are an estimated 90,000 square feet in size (depending on the tide and beach constraints). It takes him about 2 hours to create each pattern during low tide. Amador also creates most of his artworks on the beaches in North Carolina. 

For the amount of painstaking effort Amador puts into each work, it must be a pity to see them slowly diminish as the tide comes in. On the contrary, the temporariness of his artwork actually accentuates the process instead of the result. He places more value in the act of creating and appreciates the act of being at the beach doing art rather than the finished piece that he lets go after his work is done. 

The aspect of impermanence is core to his artworks and his creative philosophy. He explains, “The only constant in this existence is impermanence. In the end our lives are about the experiences we’ve had, not the things we have held on to. And in the face of certain erasure, in the face of our own personal, inevitable demise, the act of rallying forces on behalf of creation and beauty is a declaration of one’ existences in the face of a seemingly indifferent ocean of reality. I really like that metaphor- it encourages and propels me.” 

Check out Andreas Amador’s Website Here !