The first time I encountered sand art
was when I was in middle school.  I saw a
clip on Ukraine's Got Talent of a sand
artist, Kseniya Simonova, who did a
beautiful tribute to World War II. A lot
of sand art-the part that I love-is
you pour on an initial layer
and you do a drawing out of that; and
it's kind of like drawing with a marker
or something. From that you can
carve out something different using the
backs of your fingers, so you're working
with positive and negative space a lot;  
you're working with different line
quality.  If I'm working on details, I'd
literally pinch sand and draw lines by
pinching long lines of sand.
I am a fifth generation Montanan.  I was born in Montana but I lived in Russia until I
was five.  I came here with pretty high
expectations of the diversity that I'd
be exposed to in terms of subject matter
and people and ideas.  I've been able to
pursue theater here which actually has
had a strong influence on my life and on
the way that I view art and art-making
and performance.
The thing that I probably enjoy most
about sand art is that it's a really
unexplored medium and that gives me the
space and just the ability to pursue it
on my own terms.
You can close off the world and exist
just with the sand in your thoughts.  I
love that I get to play in the dirt.
