One of our favorite things about a big snowfall is seeing what The Snow Man in Appleton creates! His artwork can be found in his front yard near Appleton Medical Center on the corner of Glendale and Racine Street. We reached out to ask The Snow Man (Scott Lesperance) a few questions!
GVK: When did you start making snow sculptures? What was your first creation?
The Snow Man: The first sculpture I did was a crude Winnie-the-Pooh back in ’98. It was a Saturday evening and my energy level was high. With plenty of packy snow in the yard and 3 young children to be entertained, the time was right. So I made my intentions known to everyone and headed out the door with my daughter’s Pooh bear in hand as they all watched from the kitchen window with great expectation. A few hours later and with everyone feeling good about the snow creation, a new tradition was started.
GVK: Where do you get your inspiration?
The Snow Man: Inspiration can come in many ways. Rummaging through the kid’s toy chest, getting a note from a young admirer making a request or trips to thrift and toy stores looking for figurines.
GVK: How much snow do you need to create?
The Snow Man: I have a 2′ x 2′ x 54″ tall form that I have to fill and pack down tightly for each sculpture, which takes about 40 minutes to do. This New Year’s I spent roughly 2 1/2 hrs. to make 3 blocks. 2 that were used for sculptures and 1 to be used as backup in case I need parts…arms, ears, noses, etc. 6″ of snow on the ground is ideal. More would be better, and I have done it with less. The deeper the snow is, the closer you can stay to the form and get it filled up faster.
GVK: What has been your favorite sculpture?
The Snow Man: I think the ice cream cone I did about 4 years ago is my favorite. It just came to me and It felt like that was what I needed to make. In fact shortly after I finished, I received a note on my door from a woman in town that said…” The Yoda I did previously was nice, but the cone was special”. That certainly made it all worth it. Looking at the ice cream cone shares on the page we discovered it made its way around the states and as far away as California. We were excited about that.
This was one of our most viral, popular posts in 2016. It was shared on Facebook more that 13,000 times! It’s also one of our favorites :).
Keep up with The Snow Man on his Facebook page.
Thank you Scott for bringing smiles on these cold winter days!
Find some of our other things about winter here:
101+ Things to Do in Winter
