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Alums Win Snow Sculpture Contest

Alums Win Snow Sculpture Contest

(L to r) Mike Majerus, Adam Turner, and David Ryding pose with their winning creation.

Two Bethel alumni were members of the winning snow sculpting team at the St. Paul Winter Carnival this year. The team consisted of Adam Turner ’91, David Ryding ’96, and Mike Majerus. Their entry “The Big Game” won artists’ choice and first place in the contest. The sculpture depicted a bull moose facing off against two wolves, and was inspired by the energy of the Super Bowl (the big game), love of the North woods, and the moose’s status as a big game animal.

For Turner, who was a fine arts major at Bethel, snow sculpting is just one part of a lifelong passion for drawing and sculpting. His winning ways began as a Bethel student, when he took three years of ceramics with Professor of Art Kirk Freeman. “He encouraged me to build freehand sculpture while everyone else was throwing pots,” says Turner. “Later, probably my senior year, there was a snow sculpting competition put on by the school out on Lake Valentine. I was the only person who entered. I won.”

Each of the team members participates in snow sculpting because they enjoy the art and the competition. Long before a contest starts, Turner, as team captain, begins forming ideas for the sculpture. He starts with drawings, and then as the concept becomes more settled, he sculpts a clay model. He uses photos of the clay sculpture to generate a grid drawing of how to carve the snow. To create the winning sculpture, the team began carving on a Friday morning, worked all day and into the night on Friday and Saturday, and finished at noon on Sunday.