VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The connections between art and life are a lot like the connections we have with one another, unique and different for each individual person.
For Ferenc Monostori, the connection he has with his latest art piece draws from his real life connections with Suszsanna Geck.
“When you have connection with nature and partner, you feel like you’re one. That’s the connection," he said.
Monostori and Geck, who just married this summer after being together for 18 years, are two of the dozens of sand sculpture artists on display at the 2023 Neptune Festival International Sand Sculpting Competition.
Their piece, "Connection," modeled after the Hungarian artists themselves, honors the connection between two souls through a kiss shaped into an ancient tree.
"Sort of a metaphor," Monostori said. "This is us."
Here are the full list of artists you can see at the International Sandsculpting Championship at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront:
Doubles Competitors
Sue McGrew & Benoit Dutherage: "Present Dreams"
Exploding onto the professional sand sculpting scene in 2008, McGrew has enjoyed a meteoric rise to international prominence. More than a decade later, she’s traveled the world to over 60 competitions and dozens of festivals in over 30 countries.
Dutherage was a Chef at Raffles Hotel in Singapore, Four Seasons Resort in Palm Beach, and Vistabella Hotel in Spain until, he was introduced to sand sculpture at an event.
Marielle Heessels & Leonardo Ugolini: "Metamorphosis"
Heessels began her artistic voyage at 15, exploring the realms of model drawing and painting. As her creative prowess blossomed, she ventured into museums and amusement parks, sculpting and painting masterpieces that mirrored the wonders of nature.
Ugolini spent his childhood drawing, modeling plasticine, playing with Legos and making sand castles. He attended the University of Architecture in Florence. He has written books and designed and built his home following dictates of bio-architecture and energy efficiency.
Andrij Vazhynskyj & Artem Samoylov: "All the World's a Stage"
Vazhynskyj is from the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine. He has loved sculpture since childhood.
Samoylov has participated in numerous art exhibitions and symposiums on stone and wooden sculpture. He started sand, ice, and snow sculpting in 2004 and still works with various stone, bronze and wood.
Donatus Mockus & Inese Valtere: "Symphony of the Sea"
Mockus is a professional master's degree sculptor, working in all kind of materials, one of which is sand. His more than 10 years sand carving experience has taken him all around the world, which has given him the chance to show his talent and meet lots of other talented artists.
Valtere is a professional sculptor with more than 10 years experience in sand carving; however, she works in all kinds of sculpting materials – such as wood, foam, concrete and bronze casting.
Thomas Koet & Martijn Rijerse: "Everybody Has a Soft Spot"
Koet had never expected to work in the sandbox for a living but has always felt an urge to do something artistic, creative and technical like architecture or engineering.
Rijerse's work consists of participating in big scale events, competitions, demonstrations, workshops in sand, ice and snow in addition to foam sculptures and designs for theme parks and festivals.
Wilfred Stijger & Edith van de Wetering: "The Sound of Life"
Stijger started sculpting sand on the beach of Katwijk, where he was born, after reading a book by Pieter Wiersma.
Van de Wetering started sculpting sand through her architecture education at the Technical University. Participating in the sand sculpture festival in Scheveningen started as a hobby, but got out of control very fast.
Agnese Rudzite Kirillova & Sanita Ravina: "Circle of Life"
One of the most popular themes in Kirillova's artwork is women – their emotional differences, reactions to surrounding environment, and fixing the well known icons.
Ravina learned and worked (and is still working) as a tattoo artist. Next, she fell in love with sand, snow and ice sculpting. And this love is still going on.
Brian Wigelsworth & Andy Daily: "Two Bits"
After Wigelsworth retired from a successful career, he loved entering in amateur sand competitions, then moving up to state competitions, until he was invited to a Master level competition in Fort Myers, Florida, where he met true experts of sand and found himself in a whole new class of artists.
When Daily was first introduced to sand sculpture in 2011, while on a date, it instantly became one of his favorite things to do. He started entering and winning local competitions.
Ilya Filimontsev & Dmitry Klimenko: "Dance of Life"
Since 2005, Filimontsev has been sculpting sand while traveling all over the world. He has participated in more than 150 international sand sculpture events around the world.
After almost twenty years of participating in many international championships, Klimenko is still learning and discovering new paths in this wonderful media.
Solo Competitors
Wiaczeslaw Borecki
Borecki is a freelance sculptor with over 30 years experience. After graduating, he worked in the Sculpture Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan. Since 1996, Borecki has participated at multiple sand, snow and ice sculpture festivals and competitions all over the world.
Jihoon Choi
Choi entered sand sculpture as a demonstration of a sand toy for children called Delta Sand, and challenged sand sculptors on the beach to create bigger works. He has been planning the event for 15 years as a producer of the Haeundae Sand Festival in Korea.
Matt Deibert
Deibert started carving sand in 1999 after seeing pictures of John Gowdy’s sand art. Deibert and Gowdy have since competed and worked together on many projects. Now, Deibert competes and works with his three sons. He and oldest son, Ian, competed on the TV show Sand Wars and won!
Karen Fralich
To date, Fralich has competed in over 150 Masters International sand sculpting competitions. She has won many medals, including 30 First Place Titles and five World Championship titles.
Maxim Gazendam
Simultaneously with his studies, Gazendam developed his qualities in sculpture and design. In the meantime, he gave workshops to more than 10,000 people. Slowly but surely, he received assignments worldwide for professional sand sculptures, sometimes a logistical puzzle with his teaching programs and studies.
John Gowdy
Gowdy is a retired fire fighter, having worked 27 years in the Fire Department of Atlantic City. He earned the rank of Captain and was placed in charge of the rescue and special operations teams of the city. He worked for seven years as a beach lifeguard in Atlantic City and attended Stockton University for physics and fine arts.
Karlis Ile
Ile holds numerous gold medals from international festivals in many countries, Russia, Switzerland, Finland, China, Japan, Lithuania, the USA, Canada, Germany and his home country of Latvia.
Pedro Mira
Mira began his career in the early 1990s and has exhibited his work at various art exhibitions since then. For several years, he worked as a silver sculptor for a well-known silversmith in Lisbon while also pursuing his interests in photography, design, and sculpture in other mediums.
Fergus Mulvany
Mulvany started sand sculpting by chance in 1993 while studying sculpture in Dublin. Since then, the medium and culture of sand has exploded into a worldwide phenomenon and has carried him on its ever-widening path from Europe to Australia and Asia to North America.
Andrius Petkus
Petkus holds a bachelor's and master's degree in sculpture from Vilnius Academy of Arts. He has had a few personal exhibitions. Petkus has also organized many international sculpture symposiums and festivals in Lithuania (stone, wood, steel welding, pumpkin carving, fire sculptures and concrete).
Morgan Rudluff
Morgan Rudluff is a beach-loving California girl who stumbled into sand sculpting in 2007. By 2011, after stretch of hard work and growth, she was traveling full time, appearing on TV, professionally competing, and living that good life.
Peter Vogelaar
Together with his work in snow and ice, sand has allowed Vogelaar to make a living these past 20 years. Along the way, he landed a couple of World Championships, the North American Championship and six Canadian Opens.