ahmad nadalian sand prints

Sign up here to receive the DAM newsletter.

With a profound respect for the environment, Iranian artist Ahmad Nadalian has etched thousands of stones with images of fish, crabs, faces, hands and feet which he then buries in the earth or tosses into bodies of water around the world. Thousands of stones, small and large.

Nadalian also carves cylinder seals and uses them in his worldwide quest to bring awareness to environmental issues. Cylinder seals are stone, glass or ceramic cylinders that were engraved with a story and used in ancient times to roll an impression of the images onto clay.

cylinder seal of crab

The hand-carved cylinder seals boast simple images of ocean and river life. The artist rolls these seals along the sandy beaches of the world’s oceans, often leaving the seal at the site of the sand print for the waters to wash away to another shore, in honor of the fisherman who might find it someday.

nadalian sand drawing

I discovered Nadalian’s work on NYC mixed media artist Abigail Doan’s website. Read Doan’s post about her friend and see more pictures of his sand drawings here.

sand print in the desert



3 Responses to ahmad nadalian sand prints
  1. Trina Williams
    January 2, 2008 | 9:21 pm

    Reminds me of the Color Box stamping wheels only much more exciting.

  2. Rebecca Geoffrey
    January 3, 2008 | 4:03 pm

    Wow, could I use these stamps!

  3. [...] at Polymer Clay Notes, by Susan Lomuto, I love this post on Iranian artist Ahmad Nadalian. Read it here and see the gorgeous [...]

Leave a Reply

Wanting to leave an <em>phasis on your comment?

Trackback URL http://dailyartmuse.com/2008/01/02/ahmad-nadalian-sand-prints/trackback/