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.
The front yard is part of the sculpture’s effect
The ordinary residential setting makes the scale of Octavius particularly easy to appreciate. A familiar house or yard gives the viewer a reference, while the arms spread through a space normally associated with everyday domestic life. The sculpture does not need a mountain backdrop to feel enormous; the contrast with its surroundings does much of the work.
Compare the octopus with the shark and blowfish in the archive. Each creature offers a different problem of recognition: a spreading set of arms, a threatening mouth, or a rounded body with a distinctive expression. The brothers use those recognisable features to make pale snow readable from a distance, where fine details alone would disappear.
The reported hours of work and fundraising purpose belong to the particular project described in the original feature. Keep them attached to that dated sculpture rather than presenting them as current event information. The photographs remain a record of sustained making and community attention, even though the physical material was temporary. Austin, Trevor and Connor Bartz’s names deserve to remain as prominent as the creatures they created.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- Life Buzz
- What These 3 Brothers Made In Their Yard Is Simply Unbelievable. Seriously, WOW.
- Every Year, These 3 Brothers Make A Giant Snow Sculpture In Their Front Yard
- Artists Create Stunning Sculptures Using Nothing But Snow
- They Carved An Entire City Out Of Ice…And It’s Beyond Awesome.
- This Festival Is Absolutely Must For Your Lifetime!
- Amazing Ice Sculptures That Put Edward Scissorhands To Shame.
- 10 Literally Cool Things Made From Ice And Snow
- This Guy’s Crazy Idea Started To Make His Wife Nervous. But It Was All Worth It, Trust Me.
- Bartz Snow Sculptures
- Bartz Snow Sculptures website
- snow animal sculpture gallery
- a snow portrait created by clearing a surface instead of building upwards
- 30 creative snowman designs
this is very beautiful place then i cant explain this is very nice jghe
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