Austin man accused of wrecking sculpture
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER
An Austin man accused of vandalizing a giant sand sculpture at SandFest is facing possible jail time and a small-claims suit by the Port Aransas festival's organizers.

PAPD PHOTO NATHAN DALE EDGE

Nathan Dale Edge, 21, was arrested early Sunday, April 1, and later booked on a Class B misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief for allegedly causing damage valued between $50 and $500, police said. A conviction on the charge carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and a fine up to $2,000.

Port Aransas Municipal Court Judge Duncan Neblett Jr. set bond at $2,500 on the criminal mischief charge. At press time on Wednesday, April 4, Edge remained in custody of the Port Aransas Police Department but was scheduled to be taken to Nueces County Jail that day, said Lt. Darryl Johnson of the Port Aransas Police Department.

Edge also was booked on a charge of public intoxication, a Class C misdemeanor with a maximum punishment of a $500 fine. Edge pleaded no contest to that charge on Wednesday, and Neblett assessed a fine of $360, court officials said.

Edge will have his first opportunity to enter a plea in the criminal mischief case when he is arraigned in a County Court at Law in Corpus Christi. No date had been set at press time.

All over again STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Ukrainians Iryna Kalyuzhna and Andrii Vazhynskyi work to create a new sand sculpture after a vandal destroyed the one the couple nearly had finished.

A security guard hired by SandFest saw a man run and dive onto a 6-foothigh sculpture of a body builder on the beach about 1:45 a.m. Sunday, April 1, Johnson said.

The sculpture, called "The Ironman," was destroyed. The vandal then ran to a truck and left the SandFest grounds, but not before the security guard got the truck's license plate number, police said.

Police spotted a truck matching the security guard's description about two hours later and stopped it on the beach. Officers initially arrested two 21-year-old men but later released one with no charges after determining he did not take part in the vandalism, Johnson said.

Asked about motive, Johnson said police believe the damage was com- mitted "on impulse."

Johnson continued: "He realizes it was not a smart thing to do. He has expressed sorrow for his actions."

Before the attack … This photo of "The Ironman" sculpture was shot at SandFest only hours before a vandal demolished the creation about 1:45 a.m. Sunday.

SandFest Event Director Dee McElroy said police told her that Edge offered to volunteer in next year's SandFest.

"While I am glad that he seems to be truly sorry, we will need to talk to the other volunteers first about him being able to volunteer at the next SandFest," McElroy said in a prepared statement. "Many are extremely mad, as is the whole town."

The sculpture was created by Ukrainians Iryna Kalyuzhna and Andrii Vazhynskyi - artists who had traveled to the United States for the first time ever to take part in SandFest's master sculptors duo competition. With a victory, they would have won $2,000 for first plus $200 if they had taken the people's choice award.

Edge isn't just facing charges in criminal court. On Tuesday, SandFest officials filed a civil action against him in small-claims court in Port Aransas.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SANDFEST And after … In the wake of a vandal's attack, all that remained of "The Ironman" sculpture was a pile of sand.

The suit seeks $3,793.94 from Edge for the Ukrainian couple's overseas travel expenses, contest registration and other costs associated with the couple's involvement in SandFest, according to court records.

SandFest already had been in progress for two days, and the Ukrainian couple's creation was mostly finished when it was demolished. Kalyuzhna and Vazhynskyi already had put 16 hours of work into the sculpture, SandFest officials said. They were to finish it Sunday for judging at mid-day.

Later Sunday, Kalyuzhna said the incident most distressed her boyfriend, Vazhynskyi, who makes his living as a sculptor in bronze and other mediums.

"He was the most upset because sculpture, for him - it's all his life," she said. "For me, I am a painter, mostly. So I don't take the sculpture as close to my heart. Well, actually, I do. But, for him, it is more."

Still, Kalyuzhna said the vandalism did not tarnish their impressions of the United States in general or Port Aransas in particular.

To the rescue PHOTO COURTESY OF SANDFEST At dawn, 25 master sculptors help fellow master sculptors Iryna Kalyuzhna and Andrii Vazhynskyi get started on a new sand sculpture after a vandal destroyed the Ukrainian couple's original creation overnight.

"It wasn't very pleasant, hearing about this," she said. "But I understand it can happen anywhere. Not just here."

After learning about the vandalism, the 25 other master sculptors in the SandFest competition met at dawn Sunday and pitched in to help Kalyuzhna and Vazhynskyi rebuild a hard-packed sand mound - known among sand sculptors as a "poundup" - so the Ukrainian couple to start sculpting all over again.

A pound-up is an essential starting point for sand sculptors. Working by themselves, it would have taken Kalyuzhna and Vazhynskyi hours to finish their pound-up, McElroy said. With the 25 other master sculptors helping, it took only about 45 minutes.

"This is a competition," said "Amazin' Walter" McDonald, a master sculptor from South Padre Island. "But when something like this happens, we're not going to just say, 'Tough luck.' We're all friends. … It's really a tight group of people. This was the good-spirited thing to do."

The Ukrainian couple was delighted by the help they got from the other sculptors.

"I was very happy," Kalyuzhna said. "I hadn't expected it."

SandFest officials extended all of the sculptors' deadlines by one hour for helping the Ukrainian couple.

Kalyuzhna and Vazhynskyi already had a backup plan in place in case their original sculpture was somehow damaged, and so they went to that Plan B, which didn't require such extensive sculpting as the original concept.

Plan B ended up depicting two babies nestled inside a split apple with a serpent slithering nearby. The couple finished the sculpture in five hours, before deadline. While the creation, titled "Peace in Paradise," did not end up winning any awards, many SandFest beachgoers stopped to admire and photograph it.

The Ukrainian couple did take home an award for best fundraising for SandFest, a non-profit organization. The couple's tip jar standing in front of their sculpture brought in more money than any other master sculptor.