This Stunning Snow Art is Awe-Inspiring!
The stunning yet ephemeral beauty of snow sculptures has captivated people worldwide and earned this art form several dedicated annual festivals and competitions. These are held all over the world in countries including the US, China, Canada, Latvia and France.
For a fleeting few wintery days, visitors trudge through the snow to view these awe-inspiring, giant creations hand-carved out of blocks of snow, often as they are being created, in what has been called performance or public art.
The 2022 International Snow Sculpting Championships in Breckenridge, Colorado
An anticipated fixture on the annual snow sculpture calendar, this international competition in the high elevation ski resort town of Breckenridge in Colorado, the US, has just returned after the pandemic froze it for two years.
As the Colorado Sun reports, this year, nine teams of artist carvers spent four days in subzero temperatures meticulously carving giant sculptures energized by creativity and inspiration to bring their ideas to life in a stunning, temporary art gallery
Colorado’s Entry into the Breckenridge CO snow carving Festival.
This is titled “Angel Flight”. my fav! God Bless the USA! pic.twitter.com/aIxKWLNArY— StormsABrewing (@carriescountry1) January 29, 2022
Participating teams of artists are only allowed to use hand tools to carve 25-ton, 12-foot blocks of snow into masterpieces. Luckily for them, weather conditions were ideal for snow sculpting recently; freezing and mostly free of sunshine and snow.
According to the Denver Post, joining the two local teams, one hailing from Breckenridge, were three teams from Wisconsin and another from New York as well as teams from Germany, Ecuador and Mexico.
The event kicks off with a four day “carving week” during which teams also work through the cold of night but still warmed by a spirit of camaraderie and artistic sharing, to complete their art. This is followed by a “viewing week” making this event a fortnight-long spectacle. During this week, the snow sculptures are illuminated nightly, the biggest draw of the display, as The Gazette reveals.
Quoted in the Colorado Sun, Rob Neyland, who helped found Breckenridge’s contest, poignantly captures the uplifting allure of snow sculptures: “You know snow art will melt… But it’s that frozen moment of letting people see this transitory vision of frozen water suspended into the sky. The hearts you touch last for a lifetime.”
Neyland sees snow sculpting as the perfect intersection between sport and art. It is also a form of street art, because, as he points out,“Your triumphs and failures are on a public stage in front of hundreds of people.”
And the winners are…
Out of the organizing committee’s 250 invites, nine teams were felt to have returned plans worthy of being included. Their creations that visitors and judges came to see included abstract geometrical works, a human hand touching a robot’s, a resurrected woolly mammoth, a bee pollinating a flower, a piano-playing bear, a crowned boy sitting on a toilet and another boy with wings.
The winners are depicted in this social media post:
And just to show that the competition gets that art is fun and irreverent too, there’s space for a popular People’s Choice Award, which this year goes to this “King of Thrones” entry from the Mexican team:
Inspired to create some snow art of your own? Here are some tips to help you get started!
