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Joe Mangrum, famous for his large-scale sand paintings in the USA (and worldwide), has launched a Kickstarter campaign to support a series of at least 12 works for exhibit in Spring 2015. The works will be on display in New York City, and aptly so.

Since moving to the Big Apple in 2008, Mangrum has produced over 800 sand paintings in public spaces around the city, periodically working in Washington Square Park and Union Square, Manhattan. The designs are entirely spontaneous, which makes their intricate and uniform patterns even more impressive. Of-the-moment, Mangrum’s work attracts such an audience because watching his process of mark-making cannot be recreated.

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What is perhaps most special about the work is their life-span. During the course of a day Mangrum will spend 12 hours tirelessly working away, only for the night – and weather – to destroy his creation. If you see Mangrum working, it is a truly unique experience.

However, the artist receives thousands of emails a year from fans asking for something to take away. He first responded with ‘Painting New York’, a 40-page volume documenting his sand painting between August 23rd and November 22nd 2009. Five years later he has made the natural progression into the gallery, and needs your help! Having developed a technique which binds the grains of sand into the carbon fibres of his ‘carpet’ canvasses, the Process Into Permanence campaign means that individual works can be bought by Mangrum’s fans.

His Kickstarter campaign has 16 days to go and Mangrum (as of writing this) needs $11,447 to reach his aim of $20,000. Donations will go towards “paying for loads of sand, rolls of carpet, finishes, ways to stretch and hang the art and all the costs associated with presenting the art at a venue including invites, refreshments and keeping the lights on.”

Those who donate will be invited to purchase a piece of the large-scale ‘Magic Carpet’, by the inch or foot, whilst backers at the thousand dollar level or more are invited to meet the artist in studio, exclusively seeing the process in action.

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For the American painter “cutting up the ‘Magic Carpet’ painting acts as a unique metaphor: it brings a piece of the magic into your home and virtually connects your to other backers. Just as [his] temporary paintings disperse in the wind, this painting will disperse around the globe”.

Any additional will enable Mangrum to travel the world, ‘on tour’ as such, performing live sand paintings at selected venues domestically and internationally. You can sponsor a painting in your city by choosing the “Have Sand Will Travel” Backer Reward on his Kickstarter page.

Find out more at kickstarter.com/projects/joemangrum/process-into-permanence.

Nick has been a fan of Joe’s work for many years. The Busking Project were fortunate enough to film him back in 2011 while on our tour. Here are some photos of that experience:

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