Local sculptor takes talent to the sand and snow

As heavy snow covered the mountain a couple of weeks ago and many people retreated inside to the warm comfort of their homes, Rick Emmons, on the other hand, spent many hours in the thick of it, all in the name of artistry.

Emmons took his tools and braved the cold to make a snow castle on a rock column in his front yard. 

“The snow was perfect,” Emmons said. “It was dry, so it was easy to pack it in and shape. I was just doing it for my own pleasure.”

“The snow was perfect,” Emmons said. “It was dry, so it was easy to pack it in and shape. I was just doing it for my own pleasure.”

After the sun went down and his fingers were numb, he completed his snowy masterpiece, but how he got to the point of making snow castles is a story within itself.

Emmons and his wife Stacy became full-time Idyllwild residents a few years ago. Before that, they were here part-time, living in Long Beach where Emmons spent 20-plus years as an award-winning sand sculptor. 

“A little over 20 years ago, I was going surfing down in Seal Beach and I parked in front of this gigantic sandcastle,” Emmons said. “It must have been about 6 to 7 feet high. I was just fascinated with it and wondered how they did it. It ended up being the Seal Beach annual Sand Sculpting Contest.”

After that, Emmons couldn’t wait to learn. He studied the techniques of how to build sculptures and sandcastles within a couple of years. Before he knew it, he was entering into contests with a few of his co-workers from Disneyland. 

“The first contest I ever entered I did a wizard, a dragon and a group of rocks,” Emmons said. “We had four hours to complete this thing. We won first prize under Best Sculpture.”

Emmons and his team were called Knights of the Third Shift. The reason? Emmons and his three teammates were independent contractors for Disney and helped build Disney’s California Adventure in the late 1990s into 2000. At the time and being the new guys, they worked the shift no one else wanted — the third shift, which was also known as the graveyard shift.

They worked four days a week, and then would spend the rest of their time learning and perfecting the making of sand sculptures.
Emmons explained how his job helped in his creative outlet of sand sculpting,

“We were all plasterers,” he said. “That’s where we learned how to rock carve. We were working on the Grizzly River Run and I was one of the men shooting the cement. The guys would come in and carve it. I wanted to learn how to carve, so I would stay after work and I learned how to carve from them.”

After completing that job, Emmons’ skills were noticed. Disney called him and offered him a payroll job. They hired him and the three other guys from his crew. Emmons worked in the staff shop for Disney for about 20 years before retiring on his birthday, March 5, 2020, a week before Disneyland shut down due to the pandemic. 

“We did everything from tile work to concrete to plaster to drywall to stucco,” Emmons explained. “We would use fiberglass and molds to create things around the park. We would make cement carvings to look like wood. One of my proudest things I worked on was a little astronaut lady at the popcorn cart in Tomorrowland. At the time, it was a new thing. It was the hardest sculpture I ever did because it was so tiny, but now, she’s in the park turning popcorn.”  

Emmons would enter sand sculpting and sandcastle competitions six to seven times a year — anywhere from Santa Barbara down to the California/Mexico border and everywhere in between.

One year, Emmons created a snowman sand sculpture outside the Hotel Del Coronado in Coronado, which became his Christmas card that year.

Emmons said, “We had a lot of fun, but it was a lot of work also.” Humbly, he added, “I was just a mediocre sand sculptor, but I won a lot of first place trophies and awards, and some second and third place. Out of all the competitions I entered, there’s only two or three times I didn’t win anything.”

Emmons has always had an artistic eye, but never taken an art class. He is completely self-taught. Ever since he was a kid, he’s loved to draw. He also paints with watercolors, and most recently, started learning to paint with acrylic. And in case he needed one more artistic talent that’s not of the visual nature, Emmons also knows how to play the guitar. 

Emmons recalled when he first learned how to sculpt.

“My daughter had a school project when she was about 7 years old to replicate one of the missions,” he said. “So, I started helping her build it out of clay. That’s when I first figured I could sculpt.”

Whether it’s painting, drawing, sculpting in sand or snow or with cement or clay, Emmons’ love for self-learning has brought him great joy, and a fulfilling career, and a lot of amazement to those who are lucky enough to experience his talents.