The temperature was dropping to near 0 and the wind was picking up this morning, but the dozen ice carving teams in Rice Park loved it.
“Yesterday was too warm,” said Amy Hayes of the almost-above-freezing temperatures Thursday, the first day of the St. Paul Winter Carnival ice-carving competition. “It was too warm to get the blocks to stick together.”
The Mounds View resident was working on a “Last Supper” sculpture this morning — she’s teamed up with longtime carver “Buzzsaw” Bob Halverson to give shape to Leonardo da Vinci’s 15th century mural— and said the arriving cold snap would be good for the sculptures.
“Hopefully they should last throughout the week, instead of being gone two days after they’re carved, which is usual,” she said.
On “The Last Supper,” Halverson and Hayes were carving Jesus and his 12 apostles out of 10 400-pound ice blocks. Twenty-four hours since the team’s carving began, the heads of Bartholomew, James and Andrew jutted out of the glassy mass. The rest — Judas Iscariot, Peter, John, Jesus, Thomas, James the Greater, Philip, Matthew, Jude Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot — have to take form in time for judging at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Eagan resident Lisa Carr was out with her two children — Annika, 6, and Pascal, 2 — as part of her daughter’s home school art class.
“It’s a chance to show them something being created,” said Carr, as she pointed out a competitor chiseling a tree limb on the “Alice in Wonderland” entry. “It’s something you don’t normally see.”
Also, she said, her husband had proposed to her in front of a “big, fancy” sculpture in 1992 — the year the NFL Super Bowl was at the Metrodome — so it brought up good memories to poke around in single-digit temps.
After judging, ice-carving winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at 4 p.m. Tuesday at McGovern’s on West Seventh. The top prize is $3,000, with “People’s Choice” and “Carver’s Choice” categories adding $250 apiece.
Copyright 2009 Pioneer Press.
