By ALEXANDREA BAILEY
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com
“It’s your choice to better your life or go down a dark road.” ~ Anubis Morrison
The Holiday Sandcastle Village on South Padre Island features a new sculpture: a lifelike representation of Optimus Prime, crafted by local sand sculptor and Village keeper, Anubis Morrison. Morrison drew inspiration for his third installation at the Village from his childhood passion for Transformers and their iconic struggle between good and evil.
Morrison was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he lived in various locations throughout the state, including both the countryside and the city. He expressed that Ambridge, where he spent most of his childhood, was “kind of a rough town.”
“I lived in some bad areas there,” said Morrison. “I got to experience all the spectrums of life there, from suburbia life to bad areas with low income and a lot of crime.”
Morrison says the beginning of his life wasn’t easy. He saw many of his friends pass away young from unfortunate circumstances including shooting incidents and drug overdoses.
“I went through a lot of stuff growing up there, that’s all I can say,” said Morrison. “It definitely affects who you are and creates the character you are today, if you allow it to in a positive way, which I did…It’s a matter of choice.”
Since early childhood, he has loved drawing and painting. According to Morrison, his traumas have also influenced his attraction to art and music, guiding him toward a more alternative side of creativity. He describes this side of art as more “raw” and “real.”
“We live in a society that tends to hide who we are, because we are afraid of what other people are going to think of us,” said Morrison. “We are scared to show our true colors, when really, it should be the opposite…It seems like a ‘darker’ side to people, but really, I think that’s the “light” side, because it’s true. It’s real. You’re not a façade on feet. You’re being who you really are.”
Eventually, Morrison decided to “start over” and moved to Denver, where his mother lived. He says that he felt a strong pull to relocate there and ended up staying in Denver for about 20 years. During his time there, he met his wife, Molly, attended art school, made many friends in the art scene and pursued his passion for music.
Morrison and Molly began to crave a slower lifestyle and started considering moving to Europe, specifically to Adra, Spain. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the financial means to make that dream a reality, explained Morrison.
They decided to search for somewhere in the United States with a similar feel. They initially looked into the Corpus Christi area, Port Aransas and Galveston, but according to Morrison, none of it “resonated” with the couple. They didn’t want to go to California either and Morrison had had enough of the East coast. Resonation manifested for the two when they did an internet search for Port Isabel and saw a photo of the lighthouse for the first time .
“It just felt right,” said Morrison. “Like we were supposed to go there.”
He immediately started making phone calls, networking to make their newfound vision a reality. He started communicating with area locals Melissa Smallman and Sherry Katz. Whilst learning more about the area, Morrison and Molly began saving for the big move. They visited the Lower Laguna Madre for the first time in May 2016 and moved there that October. Port Isabel was exactly what he and Molly “needed it to be,” he says. According to Morrison, it provided precisely the sort of lifestyle they were looking for.
“It was a slower vibe. We enjoyed it,” said Morrison. “I’m still here. I still have a goal to get to Europe or somewhere else, but you never know where life is going to take you.”
In 2018, Molly came across an opportunity for Morrison. He says she stumbled upon a Facebook post by Lucinda Wierenga, founder of Sandy Feet Sandcastle Services and creator/curator of the Holiday Sandcastle Village.
Wierenga was searching for an assistant for her sandcastle lessons and Morrison fit the bill. After securing the gig, he became determined to perfect his sand-craft. He assisted Wierenga in leading sandcastle lessons for large groups, and in his spare time, as per Wierenga’s encouragement, practiced building and carving on his own.
“It was very different from anything I did,” said Morrison. “I hadn’t done art in so many years, and this was three-dimensional art. You’re working with sand – a lot more difficult…It was like learning brand new art.”
At this time, he had strayed away from creating art for a few decades due to his intense focus on music, but according to Morrison, sand sculpting catapulted him back into creating. Morrison helped Wierenga with whatever she needed, maintaining the Village, lessons, commissioned sculptures and facilitating Sand Castle Days. Slowly, as his confidence in the newfound skill grew, Morrison began leading lessons on his own.
Now, Morrison has three large sculptures and “a ton” of small to medium ones to his credit.
He carved his first full-size sculpture during the inception of the Village. Wierenga tasked him to transform a giant Santa Claus face originally created by international sculptor Wilfred Stijger. The vision: an Egyptian sphynx.
“I knew I could do it, but I was still unsure of myself and my ability to do it,” said Morrison. “ I knew I had a long way to go.”
Morrison referred to his experience sculpting his first full-size Village installation as a “trial and error” process. With Wierenga’s guidance, he completed his seven-foot sand-sphynx and it stood in the village for many months before being repurposed. Looking back, Morrison said that the creation of his first sculpture, alchemizing Santa into a sphynx, was an “awesome experience” because “it let [him] know that [he] could do it.”
“It wasn’t difficult. It was time-consuming to get it right,” said Morrison. “It took time to understand and learn.”
His second village installation was a large butterfly. According to Morrison, Wierenga relinquished full creative control over this piece to him. Sticking with the Egyptian theme, he carved hieroglyphs covering the butterfly’s extended wings, which were perfectly symmetrical.
“That was fun, and I had already got a lot better at that point,” said Morrison. “The only thing hard about that was the symmetry of it…That experience went a lot better, a lot faster. [I was] much more confident with it.”
With the confidence in his sand carving competence raised, he walked into the journey of sculpting his latest creation without a trace of self-doubt.
“When I approached this, I knew that I could do it,” said Morrison. “I was really excited about it because I am a huge Transformers fan.”
The Optimus Prime sculpture was the first of Morrison’s larger creations since Molly’s passing, three years and seven months prior.
He dived into the process, using it as an opportunity to measure his skill development over the last few years. According to Morrison, the creating came “easy.”
“It was just kind of like muscle memory,” he said.
It only took him roughly six days to complete, having spent ten hours in a single day devoted to his creation. He says that he was passionate about all three of his village installations, but this one especially, because of his unconditional love for Transformers.
Morrison said a reason he chose Optimus Prime as his muse is because one of the autobot leader’s quotes, “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.” He described Optimus Prime as a representation of honest humanity, when persons are unashamed of what others may think of them.
“He represented that even in the 80s,” said Morrison. “He had integrity. He had honesty. He was real.”
News Source: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/
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