Brandi and Greg Glenn—owners of Sandscapes, a company that creates sand sculptures—make their living shaping the tiny grains. But it was that very medium that shaped their lives first.
Brandi was 19 and managing a store in Santa Monica when she met Greg. He was creating a sand sculpture in front of her store; she was enthralled. Romance followed, as did a business partnership: These days, the couple creates sand sculptures through their company and will be putting together one of their masterpieces at the entrance to the Santa Barbara County Fair.
“We’ve been doing this for more than 20 years,” Brandi said. “It’s a really cool job. How many people can say, ‘I’m an official beach bum.’ I can play in the sand, and I get paid for doing it.”
Sandscapes is based in Los Osos. The Glenns and other sculptors they bring on to assist travel the world together, completing an average of 50 sculptures each year. They’ve made sand sculptures of just about every subject imaginable—and in every size. Greg is a 14-time world champion sculptor, and the Sandscapes team has won numerous competitions over the years.
Brandi said these days it’s too hard to fit in competitions with the business, but that doesn’t mean they don’t face other challenges. Most often, they wrestle with the sand itself.
“We’ll request samples, and we’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s great. That’ll work,’ and then we’ll get there and they deliver the wrong sand,” Brandi said. “But we never face a challenge we can’t overcome.”
The sculpture they’re set to create for the Santa Barbara County Fair will incorporate the fair’s “Summertime Fun” beach theme.
“People will get to see the start of the sculpture, and then they can come back and see the progress and then the finished piece,” said Joe Brengle, Santa Maria Fairpark manager.
Tying into this year’s theme, the Beach Boys will perform their hits at the fair. Think “Surfer Girl,” “I Get Around,” “Good Vibrations,” and “Kokomo.”
This year’s fair will also bring a couple of other new attractions. The Mini Monster Truck Show is new to the circuit, as is the Wet and Wild Wildlife Exhibit and Show, an indoor stage show featuring a cougar, raccoon, opossum, caribou, lizards, snakes, and even a bear.
Brengle said preparing for the fair is a year-round job. Fairpark reps get various proposals from different companies and attend two fair conventions geared toward entertainment and vendors—including an international convention in December and a western fair convention in January.
Still, despite the new attractions, some things won’t change.
“There are certain things fairgoers want, so we have to make sure that they are there every year—but we also want to give them something new,” Brengle said. “They always expect there to be livestock, they always expect there to be corndogs, they always expect there to be musical entertainment, home arts and crafts, and the carnival.”
This year’s other attractions will include performances by WAR, Grand Funk Railroad, and Little Big Town. All-time favorite attractions will be back, such as the petting zoo and Kids Town America.
Brengle said the goal of the Fairpark is to increase attendance, which runs about 120,000 to 130,000 people each year, but staffers are happy just to meet those numbers. One of the biggest challenges to hitting that goal has been the economy, so Brengle said the Fairpark has tried not to raise any of the event’s rates to keep it affordable for families. The strategy seems to be working; last year, the fair saw the highest attendance numbers it’s ever seen.
“I think people who couldn’t take that vacation last year stayed home and came to the fair because that was in their budget,” Brengle said.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone can’t wait to get a corndog. Send her some mustard at scone@santa
mariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 15-22, 2010.