25 February 2009 2009 BP World Ice Art Championships

On Tuesday, February 24, I had the opportunity to meet two young men from Pennsylvania who form an ice carving team entered in the single block competition of the 2009 BP World Ice Art Championships. This is the second year for this team who are competing for a chance to qualify as competitors in the International Sculpting Competition at the 2010 Olympic Arts Festival in Whistler, BC. When not carving ice, Jared works full time delivering ice for his uncle's company, DiMartino Ice, in Pittsburgh. Elliot is a student in community college and also works for the ice company.

The ice used for the contest is frozen and harvested from a local lake. For the single block division sculptors work with a block 8' X 5' X 3'. This year's blocks are a little off sized at 8' X 5' X 28" so each team is given another smaller block to make up for the cubic inches of ice they may require. Each team comes with a 3D plan in mind, and usually on paper as well. Single block carvers have from 9 AM Tuesday until 9 PM on Thursday to finish their work. They can request colored lights set at specific positions to show their work off to best advantage.

This evening I got the chance to see Jared and Elliot at work.

They have the main shape done and are working on final detail shaping and smoothing. Their entry is a griffin holding a fish in its talons and is titled "Conquering Hunger." The griffin is shaping up nicely and the fish is completely done, lying on a board in a protected spot on their work table, waiting to be welded into place at the final tough. That may be the toughest part of the making the statue: pieces are welded onto the main sculpture by adding a little water and holding the piece carefully until it freezes into place. If water is poured onto the work when temperatures are below freezing there is a chance it will crack and maybe ruin all their hard work. They add water one careful drop at a time!

There were a lot of wonderful sculptures in progress at the Ice Festival park this evening. I am glad I am not a judge because I think the decisions will be tough ones. I wish Jared and Elliot luck and hope to see them at the Olympic Ice Festival next winter.