Bartz Brothers’ Snow Sculptures: Octavius the Octopus and Sharky the Shark

Every winter, the Bartz brothers of Minnesota turn the snow in their front yard into a giant sea creature. In 2016 it was Octavius the Octopus: 18 feet tall, built over about 500 hours, with curling arms that spilled across the yard and glowed under lights after dark.

Octavius was the fifth sculpture in a series that started with a modest puffer fish and kept growing, year after year, in size, ambition and charitable reach.

Octavius, the giant snow octopus of 2016

Building Octavius took far more snow than one yard could supply. According to the brothers’ own sculpture history, it came from neighbours’ yards, church car parks and nearby tennis courts, packed and carved with the help of ladders as the body rose to 18 feet.

The sculpture also raised money for clean water in Haiti through the charity One Day’s Wages. The family set a goal of $10,000 and raised $17,267.

The design works because it opens up into the space around it. The arms reach out in separate curves, the suckers form a repeated pattern that reads from a distance, and at night pools of warm light pick out every curl.

Bartz snow sculptures year by year

The series began after a big snowstorm in the Twin Cities in 2012, when Austin Bartz and his two brothers built a six-foot puffer fish in eight hours. Each winter since has brought a bigger creature:

• 2012 – Puffy the Puffer Fish: 6 ft tall, 8 hours
• 2013 – Wally the Walrus: more than 12 ft tall
• 2014 – Sharky the Shark: 16 ft tall, 25 ft long and 9 ft wide, about 95 hours
• 2015 – Snappy the Turtle: 12 ft tall, 37 ft long and 31 ft wide, more than 300 hours, using snow from 11 neighbours’ yards and a tennis court
• 2016 – Octavius the Octopus: 18 ft tall, 500 hours
• 2017 – Finnegan the Fish: 22 ft tall, 350 hours, raising money for clean water in Malawi
• 2018 – Diggs the Lobster: 19 ft tall, about 250 hours, with snow delivered by dump truck from the City of New Brighton; $16,201 raised
• 2019 – Slinky the Snail: 23 ft tall, more than 600 hours of work, raising over $31,000 for clean water in Vietnam

Sharky, Wally and Puffy: the early sea creatures

Sharky, the 2014 shark, has a gaping open mouth the brothers posed in front of, and at 25 feet long it filled the yard from end to end. Wally the Walrus, the year before, added a face and tusks to the family’s growing skills.

Puffy, the round puffer fish of 2012, shows where it all began: one storm, one afternoon and a simple shape covered in spikes. Look at the three side by side and you can see the brothers learning to carve recognisable features that read clearly in pale snow.

Tips for building your own snow sculpture

Start with a compact animal and one stand-out feature, such as a fin, a shell or a pair of ears. Pack wet, heavy snow firmly into a solid core before carving, and work from the top down so loose snow falls away from finished areas. Light from the side or below at night brings out the shapes far better than flat daylight.

For more inspiration, see our snow animal sculpture gallery, a snow portrait created by clearing a surface instead of building upwards and 30 creative snowman designs. Current projects are posted on the Bartz Snow Sculptures website.

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