Karen has been creating sand sculptures for 30 years. She has no formal art training, but always loved sculpting in multiple mediums before she discovered sand. Her passion (stubbornness), curiosity (relentless questioning) and many incredible mentors (reluctant coworkers) lead her to embrace this unusual career. In 1998, she entered her first international professional sand sculpting contest (failed miserably) and by 2001 she was working full-time as a free-lance sand sculptor. She specializes in cute, whimsical and fantasy themes, but she loves a challenge! To date, Karen has competed in over 160 Professional Level International sand sculpture contests, winning 30 First Place Titles, as well as 5 World Championship titles (Heck, yeah!).
Her work takes her around the world, travelling and sculpting in 15 Countries, so far….Fun Facts: Karen has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and enjoys playing any sport! She is also a mega-nerd, loves any board game or card game and is obsessed with Dune and Star Wars.

Karlis Ile is a professional sculptor from Latvia since 1995. He works with various materials; bronzes steel, granite, wood, and recently ice, snow and sand, because he “likes how the primeval force of these natural materials along with the magic of the moment makes energy vibrate.” Karlis graduated from Art Academy of Latvia and holds a master’s degree in art in humanities. He finished figural sculpture Master workshop. Karlis holds numerous gold medals from international festivals in many countries, Russia, Switzerland, Finland, China, Japan, Lithuania, the USA, Canada, Germany and his home country of Latvia.

Morgan Rudluff is a beach-loving California girl who stumbled into sand sculpting in 2007. By 2011, after a lot of hard work and growth, she was traveling full time, appearing on TV, professionally competing, and living that good life.
In 2018 Morgan made the complicated choice to focus on a new career. She now works full-time as a massage therapist splitting her time between her private practice in Oakland, CA and being an Instructor of massage therapy at the San Francisco School of Massage. Morgan is (obviously) still sand sculpting, but just part-time now. She considers all her years as a sand sculptor to have been instrumental in how she approaches bodywork: “Both of my careers have been equal parts art, design, science, composition, education, adaptability, attention to detail, creativity, intuition, and absolute love for what I am doing. Plus, I usually get to work barefoot doing both!” Morgan spends her free time sculpting a little clay, gardening, embracing fabulousness, and going to see live music. She is a proud dog-mom to two small supermutts named “Quincy” and “Trooper”. They are the source of much laughter and love.

Matt was born in Atlantic City, NJ. He is a retired Fire Captain with the ACFD. He is married with 6 children and 5 grandchildren. Matt started carving sand in 1999 after seeing pictures of John Gowdy’s sand art. Deibert and Gowdy have since competed and worked together on many projects. Now, Matt competes and works with his three sons. He and oldest son, Ian, competed on the TV show Sand Wars and won! Competing in sand contests is one of his favorite aspects of the art of sculpting sand. Some of his honors were winning People’s Choice at the World Championship in 2001 and 1st place World Championship Doubles in 2002. Matt has competed in Virginia Beach since 2001. Winner of doubles in 2003, and has placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th over the years, in addition to a few People’s Choice and Neptune’s Choice awards. This is truly one of his favorite contests. Matthew holds a BA with a graphic design emphasis from Mercyhurst University. Inspired by his youngest son, Liam, this past spring Matt is attending Stockton University to continue his study in the arts. Father and son were in a sculpture class together. Sandcreation LLC is owned and operated by Matt. Follow him on SandcreationNJ, or Sandcreation on Facebook.

Iemelianenko is a Ukrainian professional sculptor who was born in 1971 in Crimea. He studied sculpture at the Kharkiv Art Academy (KSADA). Slava has participated in many international sculpture projects and festivals since 2009 in countries such as Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Colombia, Indonesia, and others. He has also had several solo exhibitions of bronze sculptures. He works with materials such as sand, snow, ice, concrete, metal, stone, wood, and plastic.

Peter has been an active artist for over 50 years. His work in snow, ice and sand has taken him all over the world and he especially loves coming to Virginia Beach.. In the past few years he has won the People’s Choice twice as well as garnering judges prizes. He loves making pieces that the audience connects with as well as trying out new subject matter and ideas. Recently, he has been creating unique steel sculptures and winning awards in Sculpturewalks around North America. Check out  www.sculptorpeter.com

John is a retired fire fighter having worked 27 years in the Fire Department of Atlantic City. He earned the rank of Captain and was placed in charge of the rescue and special operations teams of the city. He worked for 7 years as a beach lifeguard in Atlantic City and attended Stockton University for physics and fine arts. John has competed at the Neptune Festival for close to 30 years! He has won the event 4 times and has placed many more than that. John considers VB his second home. He will be teaching “The Art Of Sand Sculpture” to all that are interested at the conclusion of the competition. See management for details. “The Neptune Festival puts out the red carpet for some of the most talented sand sculptors on our planet every year. This event is one that surpasses all others. Long live the king!”

Abe Waterman was once from Prince Edward Island, Canada, but now wanders aimlessly, peering in at the absurdities of life, of which there are many, sand sculpture being a fine example.

After studying at the art college in Moscow Ilya worked as a jeweler/goldsmith designing and making jewelry for 7 years.
While working as a jeweler he started making ice sculptures and found he enjoyed the combination of traveling and sculpting.
Ilya quit his jewelry job and continued to study sculpture for 6 more years at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute of Surikov.
He has been sculpting sand since 2005 while traveling all over the world. He has taken part in more than 200 international sand ice and snow sculpture festivals!

Francisco is a Mexican sculptor originally from Zapopan, Jalisco. He graduated from the University of Guadalajara with a degree in visual arts. Within his artistic development he has achieved numerous participations; in individual and group exhibitions in various galleries, cultural centers, academic institutions and interventions in public spaces, forums, exchanges, contests, cultural festivals and television shows in various states of the republic and abroad. Since 2008, he entered into sand sculpture as an independent artist, and he shows his work permanently on the Malecon of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, which is currently considered as a tourist attraction for the city.

Ferenc was born on the 5th of February 1978 in Budapest. After high school, he studied stone carving for 2 years. In 2002, he went to Portugal to make stone sculptures and there, in 2003, he participated in his first sand sculpture festival. Ever since, he has created sand sculptures all around the world – Australia, China, Katar, Turkey, Chile, and all-around Europe. At home, he makes bronze sculptures and concrete sculptures, and is the father of 4 sons.

Vadim was born in 1987 in Belarus. From 2006 to 2012, he studied at the Moscow State Academy of Arts Surikov. Since 2010, he has been a participant in international exhibitions and festivals of sand and ice sculptures. In 2019, he was the organization and artistic leader of the sand sculpture festival in Minsk “The Age of Myths. Spirits and Gods of Belarus.” Since that time, he has been the Chief Artist in collaboration for inclusive adaptation of museum exhibitions for the main museums (Russian Museum, Hermitage, Pushkin Museum, Kremlin museums, etc.)

Pedro Mira, Portugal
Pedro Mira was born in Lisbon in 1970, where he studied sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts and photography at the Portuguese Institute of Photography. He began his career in the early 1990s and has exhibited his work at various art exhibitions since then. For several years, he worked as a silver sculptor for a well-known silversmith in Lisbon while also pursuing his interests in photography, design, and sculpture in other mediums. In addition to creating his own work, Pedro Mira collaborated with other artists, sculpting and developing molds using various techniques. Since 2006, Pedro Mira has been sculpting in sand and ice at major festivals and competitions around the world, and he has received several awards for his work. For the past four years, in addition to sand sculpture, he has been creating design and furniture woodwork.

Jakub Zimacek, Czechia
Jakub started sandsculpting on beaches of south Spain in 2003 and in 2005 participated on first international sandsculpting festival in Portugal. Since then, he has been full time sandsculptor and takes part on events around the world.

Isabelle Gasse, Canada
Isabelle Gasse was nudged into finding her artistic destiny at the tender age of 16, thanks to an art teacher that encouraged her to compete in a local amateur snow sculpting event in Québec Canada, her hometown. A fast-rising professional in the snowy and icy art, she is shaping her frosty fantasies in worldwide events, Ice Hotel of Québec among others, and brought home lots of awards. Monumental and ephemeral sculptures was now the way for her to sow a little more poetry in this world. In a move from snow suit to sandals, she swapped her ice-carving gadgets for beach bum toolkit to been able to enjoy the delightful feeling of the sun while carving. And that’s how, since 2021, she is bringing her personal surrealistic style in many sand events, and the Canadian Race against the Tide TV show.

Marie-Line Gagné, Canada
Marie-Line Gagné, is a dynamic artist fueled by boundless creativity and a love for the whimsical wonders of nature. Since 2017, she’s been carving her path, quite literally, in ice, snow, wood, and sand, transforming dirty logs, frozen landscapes and sandy beach shores into vibrant masterpieces that capture the public imagination. She had been seen surfing her professional waves not only on national and international competitions, but also on tv reality shows with her funky participation at Race against The Tide season 3. With every stroke of her chisel and every grain of sand, she continues to spread joy and wonder with her ephemeral art, proving that sometimes, the best way to leave your mark on the world is to sculpt it with a smile.

Wilfred Stijger, The Netherlands
Wilfred started sculpting sand on the beach of Katwijk, where he was born, after reading a book by Pieter Wiersma. His work impressed him a lot. After receiving many good reactions from the people passing by, he joined the sandsculpture festival in Scheveningen. There, he met Gerry Kirk, sculptor, and he invited Wilfred to work with him. Through his network, he was invited to festivals and competitions. Now, he travels around the world to give people beautiful sculptures in sand, snow and ice. One day, he hopes to organize his own festival.

Edith Van De Wetering
“When I was young, I hated sand between my toes, but now I could not live without it.” Edith started sculpting sand through her architecture education at the Technical University. Participating in the sand sculpture festival in Scheveningen started as a hobby but got out of control very fast. She has now been traveling around the world to build sand, snow and ice sculptures for over 20 years.

Agnese Rudzite Kirillova, Latvia
Agnese mainly works in sculpture as her medium. In 2007, she graduated with her master’s degree in sculpting in Latvia’s Art Academy. During those years, she had a few personal exhibitions and participated in many croup exhibitions, art projects, symposiums, festivals and contests in Latvia and abroad (Japan, Vietnam, Russia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, USA, Kuwait, Cabo Verde). As a sculptor she works with very different materials – welding metal, fiberglass, concrete, Styrofoam, ice, snow, sand, wood, bronze, aluminum, stone, some combined materials and also making fire sculptures. One of the most popular themes in her artworks is women, their emotional differences, reactions to surrounding environment, and fixing the well-known icons. Another very big influence to her creativity comes from nature, different shapes of nature, what can be shown as straight feedback to realism, as like abstract objects.

Sanita Ravina, Latvia
Sculptor. Painter. Designer. Taking part in professional sand sculpture competitions and projects for more than 15 years, working on ice projects and taking part in competitions for more than 10 years, and I have tried out snow and straw materials for the last 6 years. In times between sculptures, Sanita is painting, creating, designing graphic art and running her tattoo place. She has participated in many international ice, sand, snow, and straw sculpture projects in different places in the world, winning many awards along the way. Follow her works on – instagram.com/sanita.ravina

Jihoon Choi, South Korea
Jihoon majored in environmental sculpture. He was fascinated by the image of an American sculptor he met while traveling as a university student, so he started sand sculpture in Korea at first. From 2008 to 2024, he played the role of curator at the Haeundae Sand Festival and is conducting a program every year in Korea that allows the public to easily enjoy sand sculpture through sand sculpture classes. The goal is to build a nice cafe on the beach, and to create a space where people can enjoy sand sculpture exhibitions and sand play experiences.

Bruce Phillips, USA
Bruce is a true San Diego native. His involvement in sand sculpture began way back in 1992. From that day he was hooked and has since traveled the world creating sand art. He’s traveled to nearly 30 countries to compete and perform demonstrations in the world of sand art. His style leans towards the abstract and whimsical. Now pounding on the door of 60 he shows no signs of slowing down.

Sèveline Beauregard
Sèveline Beauregard is from Québec, Canada. She is one of the youngest professional carvers in the world. In 2016, her father and sister, Guy and Mélineige Beauregard, both international carvers, invite her on some snow carving projects. Little by little, she found her place in the professional world. After snow and ice carving, at the Ice Hôtel of Québec, at the Winterlude of Gatineau, at the Carvanal of Québec and more, she got into the sand carving world in 2018. Since then, she won few prices and had the opportunity to carve in other countries. She is also the owner of a well-known carving company in Québec: Sculpture BeauRegard. She feels she is in the right place, where she can express herself while enjoying life. She often says: “To carve, you have to be here, in the present moment.”

Joris Kivits, The Netherlands
Before Joris started carving he worked as a freelancer in graphic design, art direction for movies and television, photography and as illustrator. Nowadays, making sculptures has become his main work. In 2006, he participated his first project in Lommel (Belgium). “Making sand sculptures is like a theatre act, you can enjoy it when it’s there and then the memory and pictures are the only things that remain.”

Melineige Beauregard and Chris Guinto, USA

‘If you ain’t first, you’re last.’ This has been the family mantra since granddaddy Guinto invented fire and Chris continues to carry that torch to this day. Evident in his sculptures in which millions have made pilgrimages to witness, words like “Supernatural”, “Divine providence” and “Number one on my bucket list” are often used to describe his sculptures. In a nutshell, as Chuck Norris once said: “Sculpting? I leave that to Chris Guinto.”

That was true until he met his nemesis, Melineige Beauregard.
It was at that point he truly understood he might not stand at the top of the food chain anymore. Opposites attract, and like fire & water they’ve competed for the “King of the Hill” title, pushing each other to the extreme limits of their abilities.
Sure enough, they ended up sharing the view on top of the hill, because what is a Queen without her King?

Chris and Mel are now living in Hawaii. Sculpting sand and roaming the world, offering crocodiles management assistance in countries of need.

Brian Wigelsworth, USA
Brian was a successful commercial illustrator and add designer in Minneapolis for most of his professional career. Creating sculptures on beaches since he was a kid he loved competing in amateur competitions, after retiring about 22 years ago he found himself in the sand again and soon after began sand sculpting professionally, creating his first sand company, Sand Lubbers. He has since created countless commercial sculptures and competed in many master sand sculpting events as well as created his own event in Siesta Key, Florida, called the Siesta Key Crystal Classic International Sand Sculpting Festival, now in it’s13th year. He also created a mini event which he brings here to Virginia Beach, called “Quick Sand”. This will be his 10th time competing at the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival. He will be sculpting with Andy Daily, a great friend and business partner in a professional sand sculpting company called SandVenture Crew LLC. They took first place-doubles here in Virginia Beach in 2021 and will be attempting to create something equally special this year, after a devastating collapse last year just a couple hours before judging.

“Wish us luck!”

Andrew Daily, USA
Andy’s passion for sand sculpting came after photos of sculptures were shown to him by a friend, and he was in awe. After that, he began to learn the art form and jumped headfirst into the sand sculpting community. It became a full-time job for him in 2020. He began giving lessons and competing more often. Together with his partner, he won the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival in 2021.

Jonathan Bouchard, Canada
Jobi studied graphic design and went through a few art courses. He started sculpting as a young boy working with different mediums such as wood, clay, snow… And just never stopped doing it. He had the opportunity to work professionally with sand and ice in 2007 adding those two mediums to his work. Jobi loves the idea of making a living from playing in sand in summer and snow in winter, just like when he was a kid! Today Jobi is performing in sand for 15 years and has the utmost respect from fellow competitors as a very creative and competitive person. His ideas are unique and well performed. He travels the world making sand sculptures for commercial events and has competed in many competitions.

Dmitrii Klimenko, Russia
In 2004, Dmitrii graduated with a master’s degree from Saint Petersburg State Academy of Industrial Art and Design, Department of Monumental Arts. He always thought that sculpture was a kind of beautiful art for the ages. Something very serious for the museums and squares, and he never expected he would find great joy to step away from an academic way of thinking. It was an accident when they asked him to replace his colleague in a sand contest Saint Petersburg 2004. Once he started, he instantly loved working with a material that shapes and forms, and the amazing play with light and shadow captured his consciousness. “Every time you push the limits of sand and discover new ways to play with it, there are never-ending possibilities. Each sculpture is unique and temporary. Each new project is a new challenge, and I don’t think I will ever stop working with sand.” Dmitrii has taken part in international festivals of ice and sand sculpture in Japan, Russia, Canada, USA, Kuwait, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Holland, Poland, and Latvia. He also enjoys working with ice, bronze, and wood.

Andrii Vazhynsky, Ukraine
Andrii is from the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine. He has loved sculpture since childhood. He could not imagine that he would travel around to different countries and communicate with sculptors from all over the world. Now, thanks to sand and ice sculpture, all of this has become a reality.

Artem Samoylov
Artem was born in 1975. From 1991-1996, he attended the Kharkov State Art School, Department of Sculpture. From 1996-2001, he studied at Kharkov Industrial Art Institute, Department of Sculpture. Artem has participated in numerous art exhibitions and symposiums on stone and wooden sculpture. He started sand, ice, and snow sculpting in 2004, and still works with various stone, bronze and wood.