Not too cold for Geneva snow sculptures

Four professional teams and two high school teams took part in Geneva's first snow sculpture exhibit Saturday in a section of the parking lot at Geneva Commons.

The event was sponsored by the Geneva Cultural Arts Commission. Although the snow is manufactured, last year's event had to be canceled because a thaw followed by a deep freeze left the snow hard as ice.

This year, the snow was fine for sculpting. And despite temperatures that barely rose about zero Saturday, team members bundled up to finish sculptures they had begun earlier in the week.

The Frost Bite team was lead by Geneva artist Joseph Gagnepain.

"I enjoy working with snow, but it's really about the whole project," Gagnepain said. "It's working side by side with others, seeing it come together. There's so much talent in this area. It's fun seeing an idea become monumental within a week."

Among the tools the Frost Bite team used to sculpt was a 5-foot-long saw with teeth further apart than an ordinary carpenter's tool. They also used horse hair brushes to create "The Snow Queen," which represented the beauty of winter and Mother Nature.

While some of the sculptures were abstract, the Geneva High School team molded a Viking, while the Crazy Hat Cats team sculpted "Obama as Atlas."

The sculpture included a penguin, sitting on top of the new president's head.

"It represents all endangered species and all the responsibilities he has," said team member Gina Olszowski of Geneva.

Jan Ostler, a member of the Geneva Cultural Arts Commission, said the snow sculpture exhibit is part of the commission's mission to bring arts to the community.

"Families can come out and create art out of a whole new medium," she said. "It's working with nature. It's a great way to get community artists and the high schools involved."