Jul 28th 2010 By Ted Rabinowitz

Coney Island Sand Sculpture Competition -- A Photo Gallery

Cthulhu, eater of souls, awakens from sunken R'lyeh for a day at the beach. A giant marlin destroys the Brooklyn Bridge. A centaur emerges from the earth. And the dish runs away with the spoon. Welcome to Coney Island's 20th Annual Sand Art Competition.

Although the egg-frying heat on Saturday deterred some potential audience members (most of whom were clustered closer to the water than to the contest), the beach artists themselves were out in force and determined to give their all to die SandKunstwerk.

To find out who won the sandy competition and to view our photo gallery, keep reading.

Categories ranged from "Individual Child" to "Group Adult," and the prizes included not just cash, but free ride-time at the amusement park. You could tell the serious sand artists from the beachy-come-latelys by the equipment they used: Playing cards and putty knives added architectural detail to sand castles and big whiskers to giant cartoon felines; plywood boxes shaped what would become the pillars of the mighty Brooklyn (Sand) Bridge; and personalized water-misters maintained sand cohesion. Meanwhile, novices had to make do with plastic buckets and hoses run from the boardwalk showers.

The talent included both Coney Island natives, like Anthony Avellino and William Petrisino, who built their Big Sand Castle, and foreigners from as far away as Slovakia, like Matej and Katka, who traveled across the world to present their homage to Garfield the cat.

Although there was plenty of room for the talented amateur, the more ambitious projects tended to come from those with design backgrounds. The Brooklyn Bridge model was the brainchild of Evan Schlossberg, a documentarian and former set builder; the collective behind the renderings of Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger and Piglet included both a sculptor and an art installer for MoMA; and the "Columbus Circle Angel" team, which won in 2009 with their "Moses Descends With the Ten Commandments," had James Garland, a visual artist.

Where there is art, there are critics. Natalia Senyk, an art-school grad originally from the Ukraine, liked a lot of the sculptures. She explained to Asylum just why she preferred the Frank Russo sand castle (which ultimately won the first prize among the individual adults) over the Avellino/Petrisino castle: "Sculpture should be seen from all angles, and is three-dimensional."

In the end, there could be only 12 -- first, second and third prizes for the four different categories. Judith Stern Orlando, executive director of Astella Development, which runs the event, awarded the prizes. The Warriors team, creators of "Cthulhu on the Beach," were delighted to pick up third, especially since they had vowed a human sacrifice to the Elder Gods if they lost. First prize in the adult group went to Schlossberg's Brooklyn Bridge/Marlin team (like the Oscar committee, the Sand Art judges have a thing for big projects), and sand prodigy Cassie DeShong picked up children's individual for Dish and Spoon, a nod to the classic nursery rhyme that also seemed to display a little Native American pictograph influence.

And as the victors drifted off to spend their prize money on alcohol and ill-advised games of chance, the most important part of the ritual got underway: the utter destruction of the sand art by the children of Coney Island.

Kind of Buddhist, if you think about it. But that's Coney, baby.

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