THE STORY OF THE SAND ARTIST
Twenty-seven years ago at a beach at Belle Isle in the Detroit River, I saw a fellow trying to make
a statue of a woman in sand; after the crowd left the beach I attempted to put a head on the crude
statue. To my amazement, I found the Lord had given me a talent I did not know I had. I was
twenty years old then. In vacant lots in Detroit ! made statues of various objects, horses, dogs, men
and women, children, etc. Thousands of people came to watch me work. Soon they tossed coins to
me, and I found I could make a living that way.
In 1929 I joined the Detroit City police force and remained three years, which gave me a very
broad view of the sins of this old world.
In 1932. I came to the West Coast. In 1938 I made a statue of the Last Supper, using about
15 tons of sand. This was in Los Angeles. People would ask me who the disciples were. I was not
a Christian then. I was raised in a Christian home, being the seventh son in a Canadian family.
However, I was born in Pennsylvania in 1906, July 31. My parents passed away, my mother in 1924,
my father in 1929, and I was not a Christian after my mother died. But I bought a Bible to study
the pictures of the Last Supper, and when I read the wonderful story of the great Love of God in
giving His Son, the Lovely Jesus, to die for me, I could not continue on in sin, so I became a Christian.
As I saw the effects my statues had on the people, I decided to continue making them. So in
the past 16 years I have made many, many statues of the Blessed Saviour in many, many places,
the Last Supper 8 times, Jesus in Gethsemane over 100 times, and many others. I use any fine sand
from wherever I can find it.
I do this work for a living and for the benefits it affords to others who see it. Some are against
my work. Where one is against, 10,000 are for it. I have seen valiant men turn to Christians after telling
others of the Statues in Sand.
TED CONIBEAR, 1602 OHIO STREET, REDLANDS, CALIF.
A letter of appreciation of my work will be appreciated from you.
