Dubai-based Filipino artist Nathaniel Alapide is a Guinness World Record holder.

Dubai’s 72 kilometers of sun-bleached coastline, and the vast Arabian desert, are his canvas. Using only a simple garden rake, each morning (after checking the weather, wind and tide reports) Alapide, 45, draws enormous calligraphic strokes across the beaches and deserts, rendering huge and complex designs that are soon erased by wind or waves.

“I try to really imagine the rake as a brush,” he said. “When you move it at a certain angle it will give a different stroke, a thinner line.”

The average drawing for Alapide is around 20 meters squared. “Sometimes I’ll do a work that will take an hour,” he said. “Or sometimes I work every day for hours to create.”

When he includes a written message, the pieces can be more than 100 meters long.

Alapide’s sand art began in 2014, when he sketched a tree in tribute to his late grandmother into an expanse of sand on Umm Suqeim Beach, in the shadow of the iconic wave-shaped Jumeirah Beach Hotel.

The scale of the drawing impressed the hotel, who offered him his first full-time job as a sand artist in 2015.

Since then, he has decorated the UAE’s sands with around 1,900 drawings. He’s been commissioned by big brands like Burberry and Adidas, and he created a work for National Geographic for the series “The UAE from above.”

The UAE government even used Alapide’s work to turn the beach into a public service announcement to notify the public of COVID restrictions, with a giant slogan reading “#STAY HOME” visible from the sky.

In 2022, Alapide set a new record for the world’s largest sand image. The drawing, measuring more than 23,000 square meters, was commissioned by Abu Dhabi Aviation Club and showed the rulers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It took 30 days to create and required 12,000 tons of sand in four colors, sourced from across the UAE desert.

Though he has crafted a career from the practice, Alapide says creating an artwork from sand isn’t without its challenges.

“On the 20th day of creating the world-record piece, we were almost 70% done but then there was this weather that happened,” he said. “It was raining, and the wind was so strong, it erased almost the whole piece.”

“When people see the sand art, they see both beauty and loss,” said Alapide, “beauty in the work and then loss when it’s washed away.”

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【 致意】zhìyì tribute an act, statement, or gift that is intended to show gratitude, respect, or admiration

【委约】wěiyuē commission appoint or assign to a task or function

生活在迪拜的菲律宾艺术家纳撒尼尔•阿拉皮德是一项吉尼斯世界纪录的保持者。迪拜72公里阳光下发白的海岸线和广阔的阿拉伯沙漠是他的画布。每天早上查看天气、风和潮汐报告后，45岁的阿拉皮德只用一个简单的花园耙子，在海滩和沙漠上用优雅的笔触渲染出巨大复杂的图案，它们又很快被风浪抹去。

“我试着把耙子当成画笔，”他说。

“当你以一定角度移动它时，它会给出不同的笔触，比如更细的线条。”

阿拉皮德的画平均20米见方。“有时一幅画要花一小时，”他说。“也有些需要每天工作好几个小时。”当作品包含文字信息时，甚至超过100米长。

阿拉皮德的沙画艺术始于2014年，当时他在乌姆苏盖姆的一片沙滩上绘制了一棵树，纪念已故的祖母，这片沙滩背后是波浪造形的卓美亚海滩酒店。

这幅巨大的画给酒店留下了深刻的印象，酒店2015年为他提供了第一份作为沙画艺术家的全职工作。

从那时起，他在阿联酋的沙滩上画了大约1900 幅画。他曾受巴宝莉和阿迪达斯等品牌的委托作画，并为《国家地理》的

“从天空看阿联酋”系列创作了一幅作品。

阿联酋政府委托阿拉皮德在海滩上创作了一个公共服务公告，宣传新冠病毒的防疫措施，从空中可以看到这个巨大的标语，上面写着“#不要出门”。

2022年，阿拉皮德创造了世界上最大的沙画的新纪录。这幅画面积超过 23000 平方米，由阿布扎比航空俱乐部委托绘制，画面内容是阿联酋的统治者们。制作耗时 30 天，用了12000 吨四种颜色的沙子，这些沙子采自阿联酋各地的沙漠。

虽然沙画让他有了自己的职业生涯，但阿拉皮德说，用沙子创作并非没有挑战。

“在创造世界纪录的第20天，我们已经完成了近70%，但后来天气发生了变化，”他说。“当时下雨了，风很大，几乎把整个画面都毁了。”

“当人们看到沙画时，他们既看到了美丽，也看到了失落，”阿拉皮德说。“作品是美的，但它被冲走，转瞬即逝，这时就会感到失落。” (SD-Agencies)