Filipinos have proven time and again that their world class works of art are truly deserving of a huge global stage. 2018 TFT Artist of the Year Nathaniel Alapide channels his creativity through sand arts as he creates large-scale murals on the shores of Dubai.
The multidisciplinary and self-taught artist hails from Manila in the Philippines. He found his calling to do sand art as he was noticed by the The Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai and got hired to do sand art full time. “I wake up every day excited to do the things that I do at work, and I am surrounded by people who support me.”
The challenge that Alapide has to overcome with each work of art is that the sand had to be wet to form the art, however he didn’t let that hindrance ever stop him from creating his works of art for his guests: “One time we had VIP guests at the hotel and we wanted to greet them in a special way. I did the sand art away from the shoreline by spraying the sand with water so that when they looked out at their balcony, they saw the greeting. They were very happy.”
On his time off, he loves to share his talent as he teaches people how to do sand art. Through this he continues to inspire as he gets to teach the next generation of young sand artists. He also gets involved with clean up drives at the beach to help maintain the pristine look of the beaches where he creates his masterpieces.
Alapide treasures his creations as not only are these his masterpieces, these are products of days, months, or even years of conceptualization, resilience, and hard work. But above all, he values honesty the most when he does his work. “Honesty is important because you will be genuine as a person towards people you work with. Once honesty is compromised, the other values just fall apart,” said Alapide.
