Imagine spending hours crafting a beautiful work of art — only for it to crumble to nothing less than 24 hours later. Welcome to a day in the life of a professional sandcastle sculptor: someone who creates beauty from impermanence.
Janel Hawkins knows all about that life. The owner of Sand Castle University in Alabama, she’s turned the beaches of Gulf Shores into her own personal studio. On average, she spends the better part of each day in the elements, fashioning intricate details out of wet sand.
In an email interview with Nice News, Hawkins explained that she has to deal not only with changing weather and incoming tides, but also the sand’s natural inconsistency. Being a sandcastle artist requires a certain amount of thinking on the fly.
“No two sculptures I create are ever the same. Some days everything falls perfectly into place and some days, I need to pivot — maybe the weather isn’t great or I’m having an off day creatively or maybe the sand isn’t cooperating,” she said. “I make it work, even if it isn’t exactly what I intended at the beginning of the sculpting process. Even though I sometimes experience failures, or collapses, I can usually rally from that and produce a sculpture I am proud of.”
Whether she’s working on a commission or on a personal project, Hawkins typically arrives at the beach with an idea of what she’s going to sculpt. The artist says that she’s drawn to fine details and thus tends to prefer sculpting smaller, more intricate works. Some of her past pieces include Victorian homes, mermaids, alligators, and replicas of famous buildings.
“Even though I have sculpted creatures so large that I can sit on them, I’d much rather sculpt small and get into the nitty-gritty, perfecting things like teeth, wrinkles, scales, etc.,” she shared. In the fall of 2023, Hawkins made her favorite creation so far — Mushu from the animated Disney film Mulan. It was her first time tackling a dragon.
“Everything just worked. The weather was perfect, the sand was just right, and my vision came together seamlessly,” she recalled. “When I stepped back after finishing, I knew it was my best work. I still go back and look at the photos!”
Though she grew up with a beach in her backyard as a Gulf Shores native, Hawkins didn’t discover her passion for sand sculpting until college, after she applied for a job with a sand sculpting company on a whim.
“I was a broke college kid, and I was just scrolling on Craigslist. This ad said, ‘Now hiring professionals and sculptors. No experience necessary,’” she explained to Today. “I just thought that that was the craziest thing ever. I was like, ‘I have to find out what this is.’ The rest is kind of history.”
Hawkins dropped out of college just before her senior year and launched Sand Castle University in 2017. Through the business, Hawkins takes commissions and teaches others the craft, employing five instructors and regularly holding group and private classes. She has worked on artwork for events like the annual music festival Hangout as well as multiple wedding proposals and celebrations of other life milestones.
One of her most complex creations was a 13-by-20-foot sand scoreboard for the NCAA National Beach Volleyball Championship in 2019. “As teams would win, I had five minutes to carve their name into the wall of sand before ESPN showed it on national television,” she recounted to Nice News. “There was no time to make mistakes, and if I did, it would have been seen by hundreds of thousands of people. I loved it!”
As for future projects, Hawkins wants to create a sculpture for a monster truck rally. She also wants to hold her own sandcastle competitions. While her work may not last, that’s part of the appeal for the artist. She told Today, “If my art lasted forever, then it wouldn’t be as cool, and [if] everyone got to see it, it wouldn’t be as cool.”
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