The 10th Annual Sculptures on Ice took place on Friday, January 18 during Winter Gallery Night and Day. Artists had eight hours to carve their creations. The sun and warm weather had other ideas and judging was held early. Thank you to ALL our sculptors and sponsors! The theme was "Flora and Fauna."

The ice sculpting competition was held in Catalano Square in the Third Ward, where Broadway meets Menomonee St. - adjacent to the giant Christmas tree!

Artists competed for cash and great prizes. Winners were announced at Club Charlies. This was a VERY COOL event!  

David Andrews

I have been carving ice and snow for over 25 years.

Actually started when I was in high school.

The hardest sculpturing experience I've had was carving two 10x10x20ft blocks of snow in eight days with a team of three guys.

Curt Bawden

After working in the education field for over thirty years and retiring in 1991, I searched for a productive use of my leisure time. Wood carving became my first interest. I began carving small three dimensional objects,such as, Santas, gnomes, birds and human busts.

During this time, I took carving classes in Iowa and Door County. Sculpture classes followed at UW-Milwaukee, where I began to work with clay, plaster, stone, and metal. In addition I learned the lost-wax technique for bronze castings.

Winter ice carving in the Third Ward for the last eight years has been another challenging medium for me to explore and enjoy.

Adam Buth

I am a scupltor that has studied casting, carving, and modelling the figure for the last twelve years.
I have been working for the past five years to establish myself in the milwaukee area, creating sculpture and designing custom utilitarian wares. Three years ago, I was introduced to carving snow and ice. I found a certain satisfaction in the impermanence of the material and in the rigorous effort required for such a short timeframe. Strangely, I find these competitions to be a vacation for the creative mind.  A chance to internalize, focus upon nothing but the task at hand, and free the mind of the arbitrary worries of everyday life to just be for a brief moment.

Andy Haas Schneider 

I began ice carving about 12 years ago when I joined a community carving event at the invitation of my brother. What started out as a whim and a way to get through the winter blahs quickly turned to a passion.  Armed only with only an ice chipper and my imagination for the first event rapidly evolved into a tool box full of chisels, a die grinder and two chain saws. In years past, I have carved 10+ events a season. Because of a shoulder injury last year, I thought I was going to retire after last season, and even went so far as to bequeath my carving tools to my daughter. But after surgery in February of this year and lots of rehab, I emerged stronger and with a head full of ideas and couldn't bear the thought of not ice sculpting again. So, I had also had ask my daughter for my tools back! 

This event is one of my favorites because of the proximity the carvers are to each other (they are a great bunch of creative souls), the creative theme and also the venue...cool location and fun folks who walk through and visit as we sculpt.

Dan Ingebrigtson

Ice sculpting has been one of my fun winter diversions for the past 14 years or so. I first became aware of this activity through a few of my fellow snow sculptors. They said it was a hoot and I ought to give it a try. So I did and the rest is history.

I have carved Santas, mermaids, dancers, gunslingers, birds, animals etc... but the most fun had to be three guitarists jamming.They were carved from three separate blocks. The most fun part was watching them over a period of three cold weeks. The wind turned them into what looked like smooth polished glass figures. People even decorated them with bandana head bands.

Jon Mykkanen

Jon was born and raised in the Central Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Surrounded by so many trees, its only natural that Jon would have made a life of working with wood. Jon has decided to leave the log cabin building and rustic furniture making behind and moving on to the next level...Wood Sculpture. Jon along with Marie Serafin have been making a living doing chainsaw carving. "Not only do I like the creativity involved, but the speed that the chainsaw brings to the art form is really a blast!"

Jon says. "I look forward to coming to The Third Ward each year to carve on ice, its fun to carve and there's no grain like the wood I'm used to. Its a change of pace and a wonderful time carving in this great competition." www.woodworkschainsawcarving.com

Tom Queoff 

Tom Queoff has been committed to sculpture for over 25 years and is well recognized throughout the world by fellow artists, collectors, and professionals for his mastery of wood, stone, steel, and bronze. His work reflects a love of the outdoors and emulates a passionate spirit and eloquence for the simple grace of nature's creations which he translates into humanistic forms.

This rugged outdoorsman and adventurer has traveled the world as he captains a USA Snow Sculpting team. His journeys have taken him on challenging competitions with his teammates, Mike Martino and Mike Sponholtz. They have received numerous awards for their achievements including a Bronze Medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan and a Gold Medal at the US Nationals in Breckenridge, CO. Recent accomplishments include a sculpture for the Rev. Desmond Tutu Lifetime Achievement awards at Marquette University.

Marie Serafin

Marie is a relative new comer to the world of Sculpture. Her earlier artistic experiences were with drawing and painting. Getting her chainsaw two years ago has changed everything. The challenge of seeing things in a third dimension along with the subtractive art of Chainsaw Carving has opened a whole new set of doors.

Marie's experience with pencil sketching has proven to be a great asset. "I prefer to picture my sculpture in two dimensional form and then transfer it to the wood. The next challenge is to fit your subject into a log," says Serafin. "Now I look forward to coming to the Historic Third Ward to fit it into a block of ice!"

Marie will be competing along with her friend Curt Bawden. This is their third year of ice carving together.

Ben and Javier - Streetscapes Team

Ben and Javier work hard for the Third Ward every day as members of the Streetscapes Maintenance Crew. They keep the neighborhood looking great.

This was their first time participating in Sculptures on Ice.