The Sand Man — Andres Amador

A look into the creative mind of sand artist Andres Amador

MAY 2011 FEATURE

By Madison Allen, Chiara Arellano, Joseph Blair, Claire Donohoe, Guilio Chiappolini, Juliet Crome, Simon Crabill, Caroline Frost, Henri Geneste, Sabrina Hao, John Hassen, Marcus Narodny, Vinca Rivera, Eliza Ross and Emma Steinberg - from Hall Middle, Lycee Francais La Perouse, Manor, Marin Country Day, Mill Valley Middle, Park, Ring Mountain Day School, St. Raphael, White Hill Middle and Tam High Schools

Sand, sand, sand. With sand comes sun bathing, sand castles, sculpting, or in the case of Andres Amador, sand designs. As FastForward reporters, we learned firsthand that making sand designs is way harder than it looks.

Amador starts another flower—first the circle, then the petals—making sure to keep them even. The wet sand beneath the Cliff House in San Francisco sticks to shoes and hands as we mimic Amador's design, some of us venturing out to make their own. Over an hour, a broad field of flowers slowly emerges from the tightly packed sand.

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Living with Anxiety

MAY 2011 FEATURE

By Casey O’Brien - Freshman, Tamalpais High School

You can’t think straight and your mind is scattered. The amount of things you have to do lay on top of you like a weight, heavy and unwieldy. Every free minute seems sucked up, and you feel like you are suffocating. You have a project due the next day, and you have to finish it. It seems endless—despite how hard you are working, you feel only half done.

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