Day 1 :: St. Paul Winter Carnival - Snow Sculpture Display

Kid Friendly: yes
Pet Friendly: yes
Cost: $0

It was a balmy 22˚ today, demanding a removal of hat and gloves once the blood got pumping. With these warmer temperatures, it was a perfect day to set forth on my maiden visit to the snow sculpture competition—held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

I'm not sure what I was expecting. I consider events like this to be a 'coming home' sort of thing, where everyone recognizes me as an artist upon my arrival, and we exchange the secret handshake and the coded verbal message to be understood only by 'us artist folk.' And although I did feel a sort of kinship as I set foot on these holy snow-sculpting grounds, I was far from being 'one of them.'

I first noticed the attire common in the crowd—a red letterman jacket, black pants, and a black painted 'v' upon their cheeks. It seemed like a secret society was moving amidst the crowd, sharing secrets only known to them. However, as it turns out, what was going on was far from a secret. Apparently, this Winter Carnival has quite a history, telling tales of royalty, gods, minions doing bidding, and so on. This particular event was put on by Vulcanus Rex, the fire god, and his Vulcan Krewe. The red jackets throughout the crowd, as best as I understand it, are members of the Vulcan Krewe, both past and present... and possibly others who have been involved in this 'elite group' in one capacity or another. More on the history at http://www.winter-carnival.com/the_legend/the_legend_history/

Once I got past the sense of being a complete outsider, I was able to meander through the crowd, and start viewing the entries. I had arrived just prior to the announcing of the victors, so I had time to make my own assessment before being influenced by the judges proclamations. To provide a bit of background to the competition itself, each sculpture is worked on by a team of three people. My understanding is they are each provided a compacted block of snow that measures 8' x 8' x 8'. They began Thursday night, and had to put their tools down sometime before noon today. One woman I spoke with said that she and her team members worked 13 hours both Friday and Saturday. After speaking to another sculptor, they start off with tools as large as lumberjack saws, and then end with tools the size of a hair brush.

My opinion of the sculptures is that they were fantastic. Both in skill and in creativity. There were themes that were regional... like the common Minnesota backyard scene of squirrels attempting to acquire bird seed out of the many feeders scattered throughout the region. And then there were sculptures with a bit more creative bent... one called "Hot Tub Time Machine" that, unlike the recent questionable Hollywood movie, represented a family of Mammoths being frozen in time in what appeared to be a tar pit. But in good creative fashion, the Mammoths were depicted more as a family enjoying a good hot tub in the winter, than large mammals fighting their inevitable demise. This sculpture, as it turned out, ended up being awarded first place.

So, what's my take away? I left with three main thoughts. The first being how interesting this whole 'sub culture' of the Vulkan Krewe was, and wanting to further explore how deep that goes. The second is a recognition of how many gifted people there are around, ready to find new and interesting ways of expressing themselves. I for one, would love to form a team of three, and attempt my hand at a sculpture next year. Lastly, as 'interesting' as it was, I believe it would have been more fun if someone else were able to join me. My daughter Addie was planning on being there, but alas, she has taken a cold, and needed to stay home and rest. I think I'll try and do a bit of both throughout these 30 days... make sure that I take the opportunity to share with other people, but also do some outings where I really have a chance to reflect on my own.

One final note... going to see the ice sculptures only lasted about an hour. Because I have committed to making each of these events 2 to 3 hours, upon arriving home, I continued the theme by going out into the front yard, and attempting to begin a sculpture of my own. Sadly, due to the amount of work to simply create the block of snow to begin with, I put 2 hours into creating a large slab of snow. And nothing more. Unless of course, you count this aching lower back issue I now have from transferring snow from point 'A' to point 'B.'

Adam