HE’S BACK….
She's here

February 14, 2021

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Yesterday I was cruising Solana Beach on my new E-Bike, thanks to my son-in-law, Ryan, who hooked me up with a great deal from Laguna Beach Bums. It was a spectacular day and a super-low tide.

Wait a minute. As I write this, I realize this may be misconstrued as gloating by my friends and colleagues battling snow, ice and super-cold temps across most of the country. I want to assure you….

Sorry, Hilary is going on a beach walk and wanted to know if we still had any extra-strength sunscreen. Where were we…

Oh yeah, I was cruising past the tide pools at that part of the beach we locals call Table Tops when I noticed some etchings on a large swath of sand. I stopped for a closer look

The style looked familiar. I noticed a young man in the distance with a rake. I rode over to where he was working. I called out, “Excuse me. Are you with Andres Amador?”

He looked up, said “Yeah,” and pointed to a man in a wide-brimmed hat who was inspecting some of the young man’s work. It was Andres.

I’ll be damned if it wasn’t a couple days shy of one year ago that I first stumbled upon Amador’s artistic excellence at the very same spot at Table Tops. Another super low tide. I was walking. I posted a story about that first chance encounter with Andres.

As Andres finished talking to his colleague (and correcting some of his work), I waved and caught his eye. “I love your work! I met you last year at this spot when you created Guided Chaos.”

He smiled and came over, no doubt bedazzled by my slick ride. We visited for a couple of minutes. Andres said this was his first time back in San Diego since he did Guided Chaos. “The pandemic has gotten in the way of my ability to travel the world in search of new projects, but I’m still creating when and where I can.”

I asked him the title of the work-in-progress. “I don’t know yet, but here’s what we’re going for.” He showed me a photo on his phone. The glare of the blazing sun obscured the screen, but what I could make out looked amazing. We fist bumped and he went back to work.

I rode back to Table Tops about an hour later to view the completed work. I walked up the steps to the lifeguard tower overlooking the beach–like I did when I filmed Guided Chaos–for a more panoramic view. I am bemused by the folks who walk or ride right through his work looking at their smart phones or chatting away with a friend oblivious to the beauty literally beneath their feet.

I seriously considered mentioning to Andres that he has some stiff competition when it comes to sand art on the north San Diego County beaches. I was going to ask him if he knew Sharon Belknap, but I thought the odds were pretty low.

It’s “interesting.” I was introduced to Sharon by a mutual friend last July, two weeks after her son, Christopher, was killed on his motorcycle riding to work as a firefighter in Valley Center. I had checked out her Facebook page and was awestruck by her etchings in the sand at the inlet at Cardiff beach only a half mile north of Table Tops. She had created this pure, radiant expression of pure love for her son a couple of days after his death.

The first thing I sent Sharon was the Here Today… story and my intro to sand art by Andres Amador.

I suppose the real reason I didn’t mention Sharon to Andres–Andres, an unbelievably gifted artist who has rightfully earned world-wide acclaim–is because, well…I like Sharon’s art better. Her creations are warm, deeply emotive and inspiring. They exude love.

I’m blessed to have crossed paths with these two amazing sand artists. Thank-you Andres Amador and Sharon Belknap for opening our eyes to so much creativity and beauty.