Some people show their love on Valentine’s Day with flowers and candy. But others find delight in something a bit frostier. WNIJ’s Yvonne Boose has the story of a group of people devoted to the art of snow sculpting.
Plots of manufactured snow stretched around a portion of Rockford’s Sinnissippi Park just days before judges decided the winners of the 40th annual Illinois Snow Sculpting Competition.
The judging took place on Saturday, Feb 14. The Windy City Snowmen adult team took 1st place with their sculpture "Our Founding Father " — a huge snow block that resembled George Washington. The “Witch-king” took second place. And in the high school division, Byron High School's “Guardian of Innocence” grabbed the top spot.
Scraping snow sounds made by shovels, hatchets and even a machete served as an audio canvas last Thursday.
One person used a cheese grater to smooth things down. “It's so soft that just this is crazy stuff," said Zephyr Farris, 18, a senior at Auburn High School. "Last year, it was a lot harder."
“So, she explained, “We mostly just use, like, the hatchet and the like, much heavy, much more heavy-duty stuff. And then once we got to the end, we just put hot hands on our gloves and just ran our hands over it until it like melted nicely.”
This is her third year of competing. These students are excused from school to work on their masterpieces.
“Our sculpture is called Bookworm,” Farris added. “It's a worm in an apple on top of a book. So, this year, instead of all coming up with a design together, I asked people what they were interested in seeing, and then I picked the one I thought would be best to sculpt.”
Ten high school teams are competing against each other, with an additional 13 adult teams.
Farther down the road I find are the team Couple of Snow Nerds. Husband and wife Josh and Gabby Keske work side by side on their piece, called “Otterly in Love.”
“It’s a sea otter on a moon holding a heart,” Gabby said. “So, we just got married six months ago, and went on a honeymoon to Alaska, and we saw sea otters. And I'm like, ‘Oh my God, that's so cute.’ So that kind of inspired it, just like our love and stuff.”
A few ice blocks over, father and daughter Mark and Danica Rogers were at work. Mark’s not an artist but was there scooping snow and placing it around the sculpture. Danica, who also sculpts straw, used a tiny rake to dig into the snow block. Mark said this competition is a way for him to bond with his daughter.
“I like hanging out with her,” he said. “She's good person, and we spend a lot of time when we're not sculpting together anyway, so just doing something that I like doing. You know, seeing a piece of art come together and being with her is pretty satisfying.”
Their team is called “Snowbra Kai,” a play on the 80’s movie the “Karate Kid” and the Netflix Series “Cobra Kai.”
Danica is working on a 12-foot-high ice replica of the Witch-king from the movie “The Lord of the Rings.” She’s participated in this competition for several years. She said sculpting with snow is more complicated than her process for straw.
“Snow, you have three days,” she said. “You (have) got to go hard all three days to get something. It doesn't last very long. Straw, they bring out your sculptures year after year. So, you get to see them every year again. But Snow is just one and done.”
At this point, the sculptors have less than two days to finish their pieces. Some got to work as early as 7 a.m. and others worked until midnight each day, with only a couple of breaks. Besides the time constraints, these artists were dealing with another dilemma.
“It's too warm,” said Kellie Olivencia. She's the event coordinator.
“Saturday, the high is 54 degrees," she said. "That's just not favorable to snow. Ideally, you know, 30s would be okay.”
She said 20-degree weather would be best.
“To not only sculpt the snow,” Olivencia added, “but to get the crispness in the detail of the pieces.”
Despite the warm weather the teams chugged along. As the sun set, they took their dinner breaks. Some, like the husband-and-wife duo the Keske’s, were done for the day, but others came back and worked through the evening. They had to pull out bright lights to help them see the way.
The Illinois Snow Sculpting Competition is organized by the Rockford Park District.
