By GARY DEMUTH

Salina Journal

For 17 years, the sand sculpture at the Smoky Hill River Festival was as much a fixture as funnel cakes or Indian tacos.

Loyal patrons entering Oakdale Park by way of the Fourth Street Bridge looked forward to guessing what was being carved out of a huge pile of sand that could weigh 70 tons or more.

One year the sand might be shaped into a whimsical, wide-eyed frog. Another year, it might be a slithering octopus, a grinning Cheshire Cat, a woozy pink elephant, a scary sea monster, a puzzling sphinx or a multitude of monkeys.

In 2007, festival-goers were delighted by a huge dragon hooked to a machine that blew smoke out of its nostrils.

At the time, no one knew the smoking dragon would be the last sand sculpture built at the festival -- least of all the sculptor himself, Curt Krob.

But a debilitating back injury the Salina artist suffered during the summer of 2007 caused Krob to miss the 2008 festival. Although he eventually recovered, Krob felt he did not have the stamina to do another sand sculpture.

"I was very torn -- I wanted to do this again, but I knew I couldn't," said Krob, 54, who works as art director at Consolidated Printing, 319 S. Fifth. "It was hard to step away, because people loved what I was doing. I got really emotional about it."

Still creating sculptures

Krob might be out of the sand sculpture business, but it doesn't mean he has stopped sculpting altogether. For the past several years, he has been working on a series of papier mâché figures at his home studio that he said are reminiscent of his colorful, whimsical, cartoon-influenced sand sculptures.

"That's just me," he said. "That's my style -- I'm goofy."

Krob will return to this year's Smoky Hill River Festival, where he plans to display about 50 papier mâché sculptures at the Art and Craft Demonstration Area. He also will sculpt and paint several pieces at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. today, 2 and 5 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday. Each demonstration will last about 45 minutes.

Included in Krob's papier mâché menagerie are a blue giraffe, purple bird, striped "weinie dog," Mexican rattler and an armadillo "that's as big as a desk," he said.

"They're a cross between Dr. Seuss and 'The Far Side,' " Krob said. "They have the same character and style of my sand sculptures, but the difference is these are portable and not as heavy. They range from sculptures that can fit in the palm of your hand to five feet tall."

Smoky River Festival arts and crafts coordinator Karla Prickett said fans of Krob's sand sculptures will be enthralled with his papier mâché creations.

"He won a lot of hearts over the years with his sand sculptures, which were fun and whimsical," she said. "Now people can purchase one of his papier mâché sculptures, and it'll be like taking home one of his sand sculptures."

That is, if Krob decides to sell them.

"If someone wants to buy one, I guess I'll sell it," he said. "But some of them I can't part with."

In 1991, Krob, a graphic artist and air brush painter, was asked to build a sand sculpture for a beach-themed party at the Salina Art Center, 242 S. Santa Fe. Krob said he never had done a sand sculpture before but thought he could use his air brushing skills to create a unique and colorful work.

"I had done air brushing on photographs, cars, billboards, guitars, T-shirts and tennis shoes, so I incorporated that in sand sculpting," he said. "I built a 31-ton dragon in the back of the Art Center parking lot."

The dragon was so well received that officials from the Salina Arts and Humanities Commission, sponsors of the Smoky Hill River Festival, invited Krob to create an original sand sculpture on the festival grounds.

For the next 17 years, festivalgoers could find Krob near the Fourth Street Bridge entrance to the park, creating an original sand sculpture with the assistance of his wife or Salinan Damon Shulda, a graphic artist at Consolidated Printing.

From the beginning, sculpting with sand was labor intensive, Krob said.

"For the first couple of days, you're doing nothing but shoveling wet, heavy sand and packing it in with trowels," he said. "At first it doesn't look like art, it looks like a construction site."

During his early years, Krob said he hauled in about 30 tons of fine-grained masonry sand for sculpting. By 2007, he was hauling in more than 70 tons of the stuff.

"You get hungry, and you want more sand to work with," he said.

Artist suffers injury

Krob's sand sculpting career was cut short during the summer of 2007. Krob, also a musician who drums for local rock/blues band Jimmy Lewin and the Kingtones, injured a disc in his lower back while loading music equipment after a gig.

"The next couple of weeks the pain escalated," Krob said. "It got to the point where I couldn't even work."

Although Krob was able to avoid surgery and regained mobility through physical therapy, he felt he no longer had the physical ability to do another sand sculpture at the River Festival.

"At first I thought I could supervise others, but I then knew I wouldn't be able to keep out of there myself," he said.

Krob said it felt strange last year to miss his first River Festival in 17 years, so he's glad to return.

"There won't be another sand sculpture, but I hope I can still be involved in the festival and still interact with people," he said. "I hope people will look at me now and say, 'Hey, it's the sand guy -- he's just working with different materials now.'"

Reporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.

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Capt. Morgan says....
Curt played drums with my band "Wanted" for a while shortly after he injured his back and I know personally how disapointed we was to not be able to continue with the Sand Sculptures. He takes his art, be it sculpting or music with great pride and he pours his heart into what he does, its a big part of what a great person and friend that he is! Its great to see you back where you belong at the SHRF!!!
6/13/2009

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meme says....
Curt, your sand sculptures will be missed. Your health is way more important. I hope you can recommend someone to carry on the tradition.
6/13/2009

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