Imagine if the art you spent hours making was destroyed soon after completion. For 44-year-old San Francisco-based artist Andres Amador, who creates sand-paintings up to 100,000 square feet (~35,000 sqmt) in size, this is a reality.

Amador received a BA in Environmental Science before joining the Peace Corps and then starting a regular career, but it was a visit to Burning Man in 1999 that changed him. He quit his job, and in 2004, in the hours been low and high tide, started doing sand art.

“It’s an event that cannot be encompassed in any photo or story,” Amador says of Burning Man, “and it really shifted my perspective on what life could be and how one could craft one’s life experience.”

This art is destroyed soon after it’s created

Andres Amador starts these intricate drawings at low tide

He was inspired to quit his job after attending the Burning Man festival in Nevada in 1999

Amador has been creating these sand paintings for 10+ years

After drawing the framework with a fine-tip stick, he uses a rake to shade-in different areas

“My art is my way to processing the world I experience and recreating it in grand yet fleeting ways that are a tribute to the regenerative capacity of the human spirit”

“I wish for viewers of my work to experience a sense of wonder and renewed appreciation for the miracle of life”

“I offer an opportunity to step outside of one’s day to day life and stand present in this timeless moment”

“There’s not an overt message in my work, but there’s an implied message about being in the moment,” Amador told Organic Connections

“Sometimes these paintings are being erased by the water before they’re even finished, and this perspective shows us that life is temporary and nothing will last”

“But what will we do in the face of that awareness? How will we live?”

“So much of how we live our lives is based on fear of the unknown, and death is the ultimate unknown”

“But in the face of the knowledge of our demise, to express one’s spirit and create beauty is the ultimate victory, the ultimate embrace of life”

“I’m enjoying the life that I have been living since I have the courage to follow my own path”

“Now I am travelling and creating my art on huge canvases”