Longboat Key beach art begins again in 2021

The beach is never quite the same two visits in a row, and neither is the beach art created by Longboat Key resident Bob Dreyfus. 

For the last several years, Dreyfus has spent late winter and early spring creating art from the earth, adding to his beach installation as he finds more objects and when inspiration strikes. The result is an abstract, often symmetrical array of spirals, circles and neatly drawn lines. 

“People always say to me, ‘What does it mean?’” Dreyfus said. “I say, ‘Whatever you want it to mean.’ I don’t philosophize about it.”

With this year’s installation, Dreyfus started with a whitewall tire he found on a beach walk and hauled back home. He worked out from there with plenty of spirals made from bleached clamshells. The spirals extend to the tip of the piece with whelk egg casings, brittle, yellowish swirls leftover from hatched whelks. Dreyfus used to find them on his home beach in Nantucket during the winter, too. 

“I still use a lot of spirals, but what I was trying to do this year was symmetry,” Dreyfus said. 

A circle of black “stones” in the center is made from the blackened, petrified scutes of long gone sea turtles, which Dreyfus is getting better at identifying by the porous edges. Dreyfus loves to collect amounts of the white clamshells that make up most of the spirals, which he cleans and sorts by size, sometimes letting them sit out in the sun longer to get whiter. 

As he works, beach walkers, both strangers and friends, approach the coastal creator. Before the pandemic, Dreyfus was an avid tennis player but since stepped off the court in order to decrease his exposure. Though he misses the interactions from tennis, he still finds connections from passers-by. 

“It’s such a social piece,” Dreyfus said. “A woman came by and said, ‘I’ve been watching your pieces for years. I have photos of them.’ For some people, it’s become a tradition.” 

For Dreyfus, it’s an extension of his daily beach walks. He picks up shells and other found objects along the way to add to his piece. Last year included a toy soldier, but the oddest thing Dreyfus has ever found on a Longboat Key beach was a machine gun casing from World War II. He searched the serial number and discovered that it had been made in Iowa. 

Sometimes in the mornings, Dreyfus will come out to find raccoon tracks or ghost crab holes, but usually, the animals are respectful: They stick to the edges of the installation, not disturbing Dreyfus’ work.