BLOCK #11 | ALASKA
TEAM NAME:
Team AK Department of Snow
SCULPTURE TITLE:
Arctic Legacy
ARTIST STATEMENT:
In the Earth’s northernmost lands an extraordinary cycle of scars and tenacity, far more ancient than human history, takes place. The Arctic Caribou exist on a razor-thin line of survival in one of the harshest environments on the planet. Every year their internal compass guides them through a vast migration, continental in scale, chasing the availability of food and avoiding the threats of predators and an unforgiving wilderness. They journey more than 2,000 miles across the windswept tundra, swimming wild and fast rivers and ocean crossings of several miles, finally reaching the calving grounds where their species can repopulate for another year. Upon arrival at these sacred nurseries the female cows bear only one calf per year, which just 2 days after birth must walk over 10 miles per day despite its youthful frailty. There is no time for rest – they forage among sparse sedge, lichen and mosses to gain strength for the trek ahead, the longest terrestrial migration of all the world’s mammals. Hundreds of thousands of them cluster together for safety, an enormous cloud of fur on the vast landscape, moving in a thunderous stampede of hooves that can be heard and felt for miles around. The male bulls patrol the edges – their neck and shoulders burdened by the weight of massive antlers, vital for protection and defense, fending off the wolves and bears that may attempt to prey on the weak and slow. The brief summer gives way to the long, dark and harsh winter. Still they travel onward, feeding by digging through the snow-covered tussocks to fortify a coat of fur and fat that will withstand the 9 months of biting arctic wind howling unobstructed across the bare landscape. This is the hardest time, severe and scarce, when the punishing frost threatens and batters without relent. Death looms closest and inevitably scores its victories. As the daylight returns and the snow wanes the next year those with enough grit and good fortune to have survived reset the endless cycle once again, continuing the epic odyssey through the millennia.
Team Members:
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Paul Hanis (Captain): Paul has been actively carving ice and snow in Alaska for 21 years, scoring 9 Alaska State Snow Sculpting Championship titles, and has participated many times in the World Ice Art Championships held in Fairbanks, Alaska. He is also a prolific wood carver and sculptor of welded steel with many projects in private homes and on public display throughout the state and country. He lives off the grid, 100 miles away from a grocery store, in a remote corner of the state surrounded by America's largest National Park, Wrangell - St. Elias. His favorite aspect of snow sculpture is the fellow carvers he has befriended from around the world!
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Tom Lewando: Tom Lewando is a snow carver as well as a ice carver and fused glass artist. He has competed in snow carving at Lake Geneva for five years. He enjoys attending this event and meeting new snow carvers and seeing others he's met in the past. He has carved ice in the World Ice Art Championship in Fairbanks and he lives in Anchorage Alaska. Snow carving is a way of artistic expression for him during the winter that he really enjoys doing. The process of getting to the final sculpture by working as a team in clay in small scale then transforming to large scale in snow is rewarding.
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Patrick Boonstra: He has happily lived in Alaska for 30 plus years, exploring and adventuring the wild places while raising a family. He has applied art and creativity to all aspects of his life. His career of deploying renewable energy systems in small first-nation villages includes traveling to remote locations throughout Alaska.
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