Gone

The sculptures didn’t survive very long this year. A blanket of snow dumped on them last weekend and snow is warm, it started melting them down pretty quickly.

The city crews came in yesterday and put them out of their misery. That pile of snow was once nine pieces of great Art. Tourist’s passing through now, would have no clue…

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Ice Carved

I don’t know if I initially missed Hoffman’s ice sculpture at the rear of the Winterfest event, or if he created it after the fact, in honor of the Japanese sculptor Mizuno.

There’s quite a back-story here. Michael Hoffman lost his son George, along with his house and his ice carving tools, in a tragic fire in Victor last year.

A famous Japanese ice sculptor, who was Michael’s hero, sent him his own personal tools to compete this year. Quite the story.



Roses in honor of George were placed on his Winterfest entry right after the event…

Update: After reading the above info card I realize the ice-carving was a live event that occurred after we left on Saturday. That’s why I missed it!

SlideShow (Ice Carved)

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Finished

Here’s my final 23 shots of this years Winterfest. I didn’t include my favorite sculpture Helpin Pa here, since there’s a Post for it…

Update: Helpin Pa placed 1st, Water Horse 2nd and King Kong 3rd.

Winged Spirit


Phoenix


Yeti



Snow Angel – Snow Devil


Peace Through Service


Hobbit House

King Kong (3rd Place)



Medusa


Water Horse (2nd Place)



Some play areas for the kids.


I was somewhat disappointed by last years winning teams entry Medusa but overall they were terrific! This project is now over for me and I’ll update who won, tomorrow.

SlideShow (Finished)

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Helpin Pa

What you’re seeing here is the probable winner of our 2013 Winterfest Snow Sculpting contest. I could be wrong, as they all turned out amazing, but this one, up close and personal, was stunning. Note the attention to detail…

I started this Saturday morning having breakfast at O’Rourkes with Steph and my sister. Afterwards we headed over to the sculpture area, took a bunch of photos, and voted for our favorite. The three of us voted for Helpin Pa as did several other people I know as I peeked at their ballots.

The announcement of the winner will occur tomorrow. In the meantime, I grabbed some great shots today of the other sculptures which I’m sure you will enjoy. Stay tuned!

I’m working sick here, (damn the sneezing, hacking Ortiz brothers on their way to pre-school last week…). I’m well into my third organic whipped cinnamon honey lemon and brandy, and a batch of homemade free-range chicken soup is simmering on the stove, while Steph and sis are down in Idaho Falls.



Drop by here tomorrow for the rest of the photos, and the contest’s conclusion.

SlideShow (Helpin Pa)

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Sun Shades

The Sun came out yesterday and the artists had to scramble for tarps to protect their work. Temps are hovering between 0° and 15° but the Sun is the enemy on days like this.




Some artists said what the hell, who needs tarps!

SlideShow (Sun Shades)

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Morning Ice

I’m at the Driggs Community Center every morning from 750 to 815, Mon-Fri, serving as the ride to Victor for any Community School kids that catch me on time.

This place is the true center of Driggs, Idaho. I watch two Targhee shuttle buses roll up every morning to take workers and skiers up to the hill. I watch Amy Birch drop off the Teton Valley News at Barrels and Bins on Thursday. And, I’m seeing the Winterfest sculptures come alive right in front of me.

This morning I got off my warm bus before the kids arrived and took a walk around the area. The sun hadn’t quite made it up and the snow color was soft as I made my way around these incredible art works in progress.






SlideShow (Morning Ice)

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Nice Ice

Did a quick walk-around the sculptures after chatting with Marlene yesterday. I also took some shots this morning before anybody showed up, for tomorrows post.




SlideShow (Nice Ice)

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Perseus And Medusa

The snow sculpture competition is underway! They have until Sunday morning to create their art and be judged. I stopped by Marlene’s project and she said it was going to be the two Greek characters Perseus and Medusa. It should be a challenging piece but she was on last years winning team so I’m sure it’ll be great.

In the Greek myth, King Polydectes sent Zeus’s son Perseus on a mission to bring him the head of the gorgeous gorgon Medusa, who was mortal. Perseus found her, cut her head off and the drops of blood that dripped from her neck created the winged horse Pegasus and some other winged boar. Aha! Pegasus was the sculpture they created last year. I really thought I was on to something.

These pictures were taken yesterday (Marlene on the left) so I dropped by today and ran my Pegasus theory by her. As her eyes glazed over from the amount of data I was throwing at her she said last years sculpture was a winged dragon, because winged things were just the theme for the event.

So much for my conspiracy theory investigative talents. She did confirm though that there would be no bleeding heads in the sculpture. Darn…



Photos are a day behind, more tomorrow.

SlideShow (Perseus And Medusa)

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Box Fill

Henry is the long time Public Works guy here in the valley and we work out of the same base. The look on his face was Hey, it’s Bus Driver Jim! Just assuming…

The ice sculpture boxes were filled and stomped down firm by volunteers yesterday and the frames will come off shortly. No need to worry about melting with a temp of -12°


SlideShow (Box Fill)

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Snow Spots

We’ve got a pretty good supply of snow here in the valley, and up on the hill. I was curious where the snow for this years Snowfest boxes would be gathered.

There’s a lot of snow out by the gravel pit and it’s great quality as I can attest to having trudged through it to get these shots. Nope, they didn’t go there for snow.

I suppose it’s just too pretty to mess up…

The field by the Elementary School will be the source this year. How imaginative! Oh well, snow is snow :-)

SlideShow (Snow Spots)

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Boxes Of Snow

The boxes are back! You’ve got to love a small town that’s figured out how to draw tourists in by building 8x8x8 foot boxes and filling them with snow.

The Second Annual Great SnowFest is set to begin, running Jan 15-18 with 10 sculpting teams competing. Most are local artisans but a couple of pro teams are in the mix.

Volunteers first stomp the snow down into the boxes like bare-footed grape crushers, except they wear boots. Then the boxes are removed and the sculpting starts.

This was great fun last year and your intrepid blog reporter is on the scene this year to bring you more cool photos and commentary!

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