ShareShore Lore: The Sandman Cometh
Every summer for the past eighteen years, Chuck Guidotti, a retired Camden cop and grandfather from Haddon Heights, has vacationed for two weeks in Ocean City. And every day while there, weather permitting, he’s out on the 40th Street beach creating ephemeral art in the form of sand sculptures.
Guidotti has re-created Michelangelo’s Pieta in meticulous detail. He’s done Santa Claus, sprayed red with a biodegradable dye. He’s fashioned the Taj Mahal, a saber-toothed tiger, Noah’s Ark, epic battles at sea, and a scuba diver being attacked by a shark. And each year for his wife, Lynne, he builds a good old-fashioned sandcastle. To date, Guidotti has sculpted close to 300 sand works, many preserved in photos taken by the throngs of beachgoers who gather to watch him work, and whose children eagerly help him haul water and sand.
