{"id":252416,"date":"2026-04-30T12:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252416\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T12:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:56:07","slug":"this-man-is-creating-sand-art-before-dawn-in-florida-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252416\/","title":{"rendered":"This man is creating sand art before dawn in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text text-start\">PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.investigatetv.com\/newsletter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.investigatetv.com\/newsletter\/\">InvestigateTV<\/a>) \u2014 Before dawn almost every morning, Charlie Cofield grabs his rakes and heads to the beach. But these rakes aren\u2019t for maintenance work, they\u2019re for his unique brand of art.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Cofield, a maintenance worker at the Landmark, creates intricate designs in the sand along the Emerald Coast. The 100-mile stretch of popular beaches along the Florida panhandle is known for its sugar-soft white sand and crystal-clear seas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI make designs in the sand. I get here in the morning and start raking,\u201d Cofield said. \u201cIt\u2019s usually dark when I get here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Cofield creates his art in the dark and can\u2019t see his finished design from beach level. The full picture is only visible from high above.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">His inspiration came from a desktop rock garden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI seen one of those desktop little rock gardens with the rakes, and I said, \u2018Well, I can just make a bigger version of that,\u2019\u201d Cofield said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He makes his own rakes and doesn\u2019t have formal training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI don\u2019t have any kind of artistic background or nothing like that,\u201d Cofield said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Cofield doesn\u2019t start the day with a plan or draw his designs beforehand. He measures with his feet and steps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He doesn\u2019t get paid for his designs, it\u2019s just a hobby he has picked up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019ve always been on the beach. To be able to come to the beach \u2014 after 20, 25 years of living here \u2014 it\u2019s pretty awesome that I\u2019m able to contribute back to my community. I love it,\u201d Cofield said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">With each new day, Cofield turns the beach into a canvas for others to enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Gray Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (InvestigateTV) \u2014 Before dawn almost every morning, Charlie Cofield grabs his rakes and heads&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[110126,28,30,29,63026,63025,110124,110125],"class_list":["post-252416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-creative-sand-art","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-investigate-tv","tag-investigatetv","tag-sand-art","tag-sand-art-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}