The Bartz Brothers’ Giant Snow Octopus, Octavius

Octavius did not fit neatly into the front yard. That was part of the charm. The Bartz brothers’ giant snow octopus curled across their New Brighton, Minnesota, property in 2016, turning a familiar suburban setting into a sea-creature scene with a wonderfully outsized guest.

According to the brothers’ own sculpture history, Octavius stood 18 feet tall and took about 500 hours to build. The project also supported clean-water work in Haiti through One Day’s Wages; the team records $17,267 raised. These figures refer to the 2016 sculpture and campaign.

How a snow day became a series

Austin, Trevor and Connor Bartz began with a puffer fish in 2012, inspired by a family trip to Florida. Their archive then follows a walrus in 2013, a shark in 2014, a turtle in 2015 and the octopus in 2016. Seeing those earlier creatures makes Octavius feel like the next chapter in an evolving idea.

The first fish is nearly all roundness and repeated points. The walrus adds a face and tusks. By the time the shark appears, the creature has a long body and a mouth big enough to dominate the photograph. The series grows through recognisable features, not just through size.

What makes Octavius work

The arms carry the composition out into the space around the house. Instead of one solid block, the sculpture has curves, gaps and separate shapes to look through. Its suckers form a repeated pattern that stays readable even in the evening view.

The lighting matters, too. Pale snow can lose detail in a flat daytime photograph; pools of warm light reveal the underside of the arms and create shadows around the curves. Compare that with the working photograph, where people and ladders explain scale much more directly.

Enjoy the archive, check separately for current events

Snow sculptures are temporary, and these particular pieces belong to earlier winters. The photographs do not mean Octavius is still standing or that a new public display happens on the same date every year. For present-day announcements, use the Bartz Snow Sculptures website.

If the project sparks an idea for your own snow art, start with a small, solid animal shape and one distinctive feature: ears, a shell or a fin. The same visual principle works without copying the scale of a structure that required ladders and hundreds of hours.

Continue with our snow animal sculpture gallery to compare different artists’ approaches, or explore a snow portrait created by clearing a surface instead of building upwards.

For smaller ideas to adapt at home, browse our 30 creative snowman designs, with individual notes on expressions, shapes and props.