Braving a Canadian February weekend, New Brunswick’s Joel Palmer and Ryan Villiers from Alberta represented the province of New Brunswick in a very unique winter way.
“For us to compete with these really great great great ice sculptures was such a great opportunity and an honour for us to do and to be able to be considered second place winners is even bigger surprise for us,” said Palmer.
The pair took part in Winterlude, a National ice-carving championship that’s been happening since 1985, in Ottawa at the beginning of February.
Their silver finish took fifteen 300 pound blocks of ice and about eighteen hours to complete.
Palmer says Mother Nature was not on their side with extreme cold temperatures dropping the competition from three days to only two.
“The ice is heavy, it’s dense, it’s slippery, it’s cold and even in the colder cold temperatures that actually affects the ice in a different way,” he explained. “It gets too cold so it can become super fragile and you can’t do the welding part of it where you’re fusing it together as easy because if you apply the water at the wrong time, it could shatter all of the blocks. They just go pop pop because it’s just extreme temperature change.”
He joked that it was the coldest days ever in Canada, adding that Saturday was just as cold as Friday even though the competition decided to move forward.
“Not only was it colder temperatures, but we were dealing with shortened time as well, so it really kind of upped the challenge for us in a way,” he said.
This year’s theme was Creatures of the Sea and it brought artists back together in person for the first time in two years.
“It was nice that this year we were able to get together to share laughs and give each other a hand and all that stuff,” he said. “It really is a part of the experience of us as artists too, we get a lot out of working together, even though we’re competing.”
“We’re artists, we’re a family.”
New Brunswick wasn’t the only Maritime province to finish in the top three. Team Nova Scotia took home first place with its octopus sculpture and Yukon grabbed third with its creation of Sinbad and the Seahorse.
“We are kind of like the rookies in the bunch in a way, but we faced the challenge,” said Palmer, explaining that a lot of competitors were up against have more experience. “We pulled it off and we’re very proud of what we completed.”
Although securing silver, both Palmer and Villiers don’t usually choose ice when it comes to creating masterpieces.
“For both Ryan and myself, we’re more of the wood sculpture realm of sculpting,” said Palmer.
Palmer owns Swamp Bear Art in Browns Flat, N.B., and Villiers owns Villiers Wyld Wood in Alberta.
Although not from New Brunswick, Palmer knew that Villiers was the right partner for the job.
“[Ryan’s] work is fantastic, it’s just top notch, I don’t even know if I know anybody that does better stuff than him in some ways, he’s just fabulous with his wood working,” said Palmer.
“He’d never carved ice [before the competition], ever and so I said to him, ‘don’t worry about it Ryan, I’ll show you what we need to do, you’ll pick it up’ and sure enough he did and he loved it.”
As for what the future holds, Palmer says he has some big plans.
“I like to dream big, you know, it’s one of those things where I’d love to create a place where I could teach and share art and inspire arts with others,” he said.
