Dan Belcher
St. Louis, MO

Dan Belcher of St. Louis is a World Champion professional Sand Sculptor.  Since his first professional project in 1990 he has had the privilege of working with, and competing against, most of the top sculptors in the profession while creating numerous projects throughout the world, including; Italy, Japan, Australia, and the U.A.E., for a wide range of companies and clients.  Dan has won the Solo World Championship title for a record 3 years in a row (2005, 2006 & 2007).  Not just limited to solo endeavors, he has also worked with a team of incredibly talented teammates to win 9 Team Championships, and the 2006 Doubles Championship at the Sand Sculpture World Championships in Harrison Hot Springs, BC, Canada.  Dan has a Bachelors degree in Landscape Architecture from Kansas State University, and lives in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.   In addition to keeping a busy schedule working professional projects and contests, Dan is also an Urban Designer/ Illustrator in downtown St. Louis. Check out Dan's website at: www.ampersandworkshop.com

Dan Doubleday
Treasure Island, FL

Dan was discovered in 1995 on a beach in California while "just playing in the sand" with his kids. His style was so unique and skills so advanced that he was invited to an international masters competition just 6 months later where he placed 4th. From there he went on to be the first North American to win the coveted Sculptors Choice at the World Champions and continued his winning streak there with Solo Gold in 2000 and doubles gold (with Meredith) in 2001.

Dan has won numerous National and International Master's Contests including 10 medals from the World Championships. From 2001-2004 Dan was chosen to represent the U.S. in a solo tour that took him to China, Denmark, France, and Holland. He won or placed in every event. Dan strives for perfection in human anatomy. His creations are often very powerful and thought provoking and are sure to tug at your emotional strings.

He and Meredith Corson reside in Florida where they share their business, love and life. Web site: www.sandingovations.com

Justin Gordon
Groveland, Ma

Justin Gordon has been wood carving since 1974. His first carvings were small, 3 inch, figurines of bearded men in various poses. During college in the 1980's, while earning his Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Justin started sculpting snow in the winter and sand in the summer. He supplemented the cost of skiing by doing snow sculptures at Wildcat Mountain in Jackson, NH, for 5 years. He traded in his degree and began sand sculpting for a living in the early 1990's doing 40 to 100 ton sand sculptures for Malls, Fairs and Trade Shows. While at a Fair, Justin met another wood carver that roughed out these large carvings with a chain saw then he finished them up with hand tools. Justin went home and bought a chain saw and began doing his own large wood carvings. Since then, Justin has done tree trunk carvings as big as 25 feet high using an aerial lift. Many of Justin's works can be seen at Storyland in Glen, NH, at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, and with the Mass Arborists Association annual volunteer efforts on Arbor Day throughout New England.

Now Justin works out of his home in Groveland, Mass., and sculpts in sand, snow, ice, foam, large wood carvings, fine art wood carvings, stone, wax for the jewelry industry and clay for the ceramics industry. Justin has competed in the World Sand Sculpting Championship in B.C., Canada and regularly competes in the Hampton Beach Sand Sculpting Competition every June. As an active member in the New England Wood Carvers, he also has competed with his wood carvings at the Wood Carvers Congress in Iowa and at all the New England Wood Carvers competitions every fall. Justin has also done a First Night ice sculpture for the city of Boston in 2001 and for other various cities and towns in Massachusetts. Justin also teaches two weekly wood carving classes; one in Groveland, Mass., and the other in Randolph, Mass.

Justin now does mostly fine wood carvings including clock cases, mantles and architectural pieces and has been an honored attendee in the Crane Estate Art Show for a few years now. You can also see his works on display and for sale in the Crane Estate Bed and Breakfast. Please visit Justin's web sites and see many of his works in many medium: ElwinDesigns.com andCustomCarvedClocks.com

2007 Winner!

Carl Jara
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

One of the most admired carvers in the world, Carl Jara started his sand sculpting career in 91' training with veteran sand sculptor Tom Morrison. He brought with him a different approach, and aesthetic, always striving to create something completely new. As reward, he is the only sculptor ever to have won more than one Sculptors Choice Award at the World Championships – receiving the honor a remarkable four times in the past ten years. Most recently, Carl won his fifth Solo medal at the 06' World Championships, making him one of the most decorated solo competitors at the event. In May of 07' he teamed up with Suzanne Altamare (the other half of Team Grain Damaged) at the Tournament of Champions winning both the Bronze Medal and the title of Grand Master Sand Sculptor. Carl and Suzanne also competed in the Travel Channel smash hit "Sand Blasters" winning best recovery in 07'. This year's show offered Team Grain Damaged the opportunity to show off their humor and deviance even further as they embraced the idea of the explosions creating a secondary piece of art, just wait until you see what they have planned for Sand Blasters IV. This is Carl's second trip to Revere Beach. Last year he placed first with "Apology." His presence will certainly turn up the heat on the competition. Check out Carl's work at http://www.artcleveland.com

Matt Long
Staten Island, NY

Matt is an antique wood restoration specialist in NYC for thirty-five years. His company, FRW, LLC is listed in the Landmarks Conservancy "Restoration Directory" and has been entrusted with the restoration of the wood in many of our national landmarks including Grand Central Station, Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Federal Reserve Bank.

Matt is a self taught artist and musician. He began sculpting sand some 12 to 14 years ago as a pastime and became serious in the last 7. In that short time, Matt has developed an impressive list of clients including Nike, The Atlantis Hotel & Casinos, Nickelodeon, Oprah Magazine, The PGA Tour, Bride Magazine, Time Warner, Johnson & Johnson, Time Out New York, and the TV show "Sex In The City". Matt has also appeared on several national and many local New York television programs, including Live with Regis & Kelly, Good Morning America, and The Today Show for which Matt has sculpted sand in Rockefeller Plaza on three separate occasions. Matt has also been featured on NPR's ‘Creatively Speaking' and numerous nationally circulated magazine articles.

In addition, Matt created, developed, and patented Can You Dig It® Sand Tools™ and the Can You Dig It Sand Tools Super Deluxe Sand Sculpting Kit. The kit includes a set of tools, for sculpting sand, an instructional DVD and sand sculpting accessories designed for beginners and families. In 2003, Can You Dig It Sand Tools were named one of the Best Twenty-Five Toys of the Last Twenty-Five Years by The Parents' Choice Foundation. They were awarded a Best Vacation Children's Product Award by Dr. Toy, and the Toy Of The Year Award by Creative Child Magazine. Can You Dig It sand sculpting products are available at canyoudigit.com.

Personally and through Can You Dig It Sand Tools, Matt is a supporter and organizer of several amateur sand-sculpting competitions in New York and New Jersey. He is dedicated to expanding the art of sand sculpting for children and families. He is well known in his local community and New York City for his strong commitment to community, through volunteer sand sculpting work he has done for the New York City and National Parks Departments, The Manhattan Children's Museum, The Staten Island Children's Museum, New York City Schools, and The Staten Island Historical Society. Each year, Matt donates his sculpting talents to various charitable organizations including The March Of Dimes and The American Cancer Society.

Having been personally affected by the events of September 11th, Matt creates sand sculptures that have become integral parts of two 9/11 Memorial events: Freedom Flight in Long Beach New York, and The Tunnel To Towers Run, an internationally attended and televised tribute to the fallen heroes of the NYC Fire Department.

In the last two years Matt has become a regular on the master's sand sculpting contest circuit and has won his share of awards.

Mathew Martelli
Revere, MA

"To be a truly great artist, one must master all aspects of one's craft," says Matthew Martelli, self-taught artist of local renown throughout New England. "The learning process, he says, "must be a constant effort towards working to develop new and better concepts while always striving for perfection within the flow of creativity." In his 20-year career, using a trial-and-error method of learning, Matthew has developed an artistic style that is truly his own.

Since he began oil painting, Matthew has received much recognition for his work. More recently, Matthew's painting the Esperanto was selected by the Museum of Fine Arts Council in Boston for there building a collection auction in June 2005, and sold with much interest in his latest series of paintings.

He has won numerous awards in many art shows throughout the years, his most popular winnings being with the Audience vote. He was featured in Boston's local news magazine television show, "Chronicle" in which his work for an outdoor mural is featured. He has also painted murals for many restaurants in the Boston area, as well as artwork for book covers, album inlays, and various illustrations for many types of commercial use. Matthew also stared in his own cable-access television show, "The Mad Artist", where he teaches oil painting to aspiring artists.

In the world of sports, Martelli is no stranger. His oil paintings of Tony Conigliaro of Red Sox legend and Cam Neely of the Boston Bruins hang in the New England Sports Museum, while other Red Sox favorites hang in Fenway park. He was commissioned by the New England Patriots to do a retirement portrait of New England Patriot Steve Grogan, in which lithographs were sold for a charity to benefit Cystic fibrosis. Martelli has also taken on commissioned work in the private sector, delving into realism, surrealism, abstract, sculpture relief, portraits, or whatever he's commissioned to do. "I love the challenge", says the ambitious artist.

At the moment, Martelli is exploring different themes and statements derived from a series of paintings dealing with Chiaroscuro (Ke-ära-skooro) the rendering of forms through a balanced contrast between light and dark areas. The technique which was introduced during the Renaissance is effective in creating an illusion of depth and space around the principal figures in a composition. Matthew is using black and white oils only. This series is receiving much excitement and interest in the art world.

Matthew also likes to do sand sculputure and has competed locally for the last 15 years. Once a year he likes to get involved in a contest in his area to sculpt sand and have fun. The last 5 years he has been competing in the Revere contest and is happy to compete among some of the best sand sculptors from all over the globe.

"Who knows what direction my art will lead me in", says Martelli, with an easy laugh and an easier smile. "I just go with the flow." http://www.martellistudio.com

Sue McGrew
Tacoma, WA

It was a bright summer day 6 years ago in Tacoma, WA when Sue first stumbled upon sand sculpting. It was the vacation between junior and senior year in high school: after competing in a dragon boat race for the local maritime festival, she found herself in a sand pile next to a demo sculpture playing with other, much younger, children. The display sculptor, Bert Adams, noticed Sue's enthusiasm among the excitement of sand covered kids and invited her to come back the next day and learn how to compact the sand like a pro. Sue managed to convince her parents that spending a day playing in the sand was definitely more important then her Sunday morning alter service duties, and returned to learn the magic of sand, only to become dangerously addicted. A year later, the summer after her high school graduation, Sue landed her first commercial job in Zeebrugge, Belgium. There she had the best time of her life making sculptor friends from around the world. Since then she has juggled college life and sand sculpting, working to get her BFA in Theatre Stage Management during the school year and leaving the summer months open for the exciting life of a sand artist. She has since carved multiple times in Europe, competed in both the US and Canada, and been on Travel Channel's SandBlasters 2008 while managing to graduate in the spring of 08 from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Her most recent awards are Second Place at the Canadian Open in Parksville BC 2008 and First Place at the North American Sand Sculpting Championship in Virginia Beach 2008.

Attillio "Steve" Topazio
Tiverton, Rhode Island

As the story goes, 8 years ago he was making a dragon in sand with a clam shell and now he is competing along side the best sand sculptors in the world. Given the opportunity to compete in a masters sand sculpting event 6years ago, local New Englander Steve Topazio has since held his own in any Masters line up. As one of the invitees to the National Sand Sculpting Cup Series proves he has gained respect in the Masters sand sculpting community. Steve loves the energy that surrounds a Masters competition .Whether it's from the thrill of being up against the best or the crowd that have become just true fans. He is still perusing his goal of placing in his first Masters event hopefully it will be achieved at Revere and he will get to advance in the Cup Series. Steve heads up Sandtasia, Sand Sculptors of the Ocean State, based in R.I. Visit http:// www.sandtasia.com