No matter how old we get, the urge to go outside and play in the snow never really leaves us.
When a winter storm dumped 7 inches of perfect packing snow on a Detroit, Michigan art teacher’s front lawn, she knew instantly that she wanted to sculpt it into something fun. Jennifer Ramirez has been making snow sculptures in her suburban yard for the past 10 years, but this year’s efforts had a little extra bite.
Jennifer is known for her creativity. During the pandemic, she made chalk drawings for her privacy fence, drawing admiration and affection from her neighbors. She says she does these public displays of her artwork to inspire her students and make people smile.
“We do not have enough of that in the world right now,” she explained.
On January 26, she shoveled the fresh snow from her driveway and her neighbor’s driveway. The next day, she piled the snow into mounds which would become sharks. It took about four hours to carve the sharks, then she sprayed them with food coloring and water to really bring them to life.
Once she shared photos of her work on Facebook, the story went viral with thousands of likes and shares. Everyone agrees this is a clever and fun way to make use of all that white stuff.
Weeks later, the sharks are still circling Jennifer’s front lawn, and she’s seen her work printed in major magazines and featured on the evening news. Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, even popped by for a photo op!
“Well, you know you’ve done something pretty groovy when the Governor shows up on your lawn to pose with your shark sculptures,” Jennifer wrote on Facebook.
“Apparently Governor Whitmer is a huge shark fan! Who knew?!!” she added.
Jennifer goes out every day after work to repair her sculptures in hopes of keeping them around for as long as possible. If they get more snow in her area, she already has ideas to add to the sharky scene.
“If they’re going to stay up, I’m going to try and do some penguins, and maybe some seals with the sharks,” she said. “…If they melt then I have a different idea but I don’t want to share it because I just want everybody to be surprised.”
To be completely honest, we hope they melt just so we can see what else Jennifer has up her sleeve! This story has us itching to go play in the snow, doesn’t it?
Share this story to inspire creativity and fun in our everyday lives.
Source: inspiremore.com
