SALISBURY — At 2 p.m. yesterday, the sand sculpture looked like a giant onion growing out of a cube. But over the next day and a half, it will be transformed into something more patriotic — a replica of the Statue of Liberty's torch, with an American flag in front.
Dozens of beachgoers surrounded Sean Fitzpatrick in Salisbury Beach Square yesterday as he worked on several tons of sand rising more than 6 feet high. Fitzpatrick, working with his wife, Tracey, patiently fielded questions from bystanders as he carefully shaved the torch's base with a trowel and smoothed out the edges.
While watching someone sculpt sand might seem as boring as watching the grass grow, Fitzpatrick said, he always draws a crowd.
"Everyone's fascinated by it," he said. "Everyone's had their hand in the sand at one point or another."
And next to Fitzpatrick's sculpture, a dozen children were working on sculptures of their own. Fitzpatrick made a separate pile with part of his sculpting sand, which congeals better than normal beach sand, for free-form sand art. A sand-sculpting apprentice was on hand to give tips, and some children used small plastic trowels to carve and detail whales and turtles.
Others just enjoyed crafting shapes out of the sand, patting it into large mounds and valleys. And a few sculptors went for decidedly nonbeach themes.
"I'm going to make a ferret!" said 9-year-old Devin Thompson, who was visiting Salisbury from Rhode Island.
"I'm going to make a cow!" said his 7-year-old brother, Jayce.
The children seemed engrossed in their sculpting, and Fitzpatrick said he can sculpt for hours at a time once he gets in the zone.
"I don't get tired until a few days after a sculpture," he said. "I run on adrenaline."
Fitzpatrick, who owns Fitzy Snowman Sculpting, started sculpting yesterday at 7 a.m. and said he would probably work until 6 p.m. On Saturday, he said he would work at least from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and thought he might get started earlier.
The unfinished torch will be guarded tonight against vandalism, but after it's completed, it will stand unprotected. But most statues don't need the security — Fitzpatrick said a sculpture he built in Connecticut last week has been unguarded since completion and is still standing.
"People get to take ownership of it," he said. "There's a certain level of respect for it."
But castles and even torches made of sand melt into the sea, eventually. And that's how Fitzgerald likes it.
"My preference isn't for tangible sculptures," he said. "I'd rather it go away."
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