Ice, snow and art

Frosty garden spike
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I've had a snow day today due to another winter storm. When I was a kid snow days were a delight and filled with the prospect of playing in new snow til you were frozen, then coming inside to warm up on homemade cookies and hot chocolate. The adult version isn't quite the same, but perhaps its what we choose. As an adult, I feel guilty over missing meetings even if it is out of my control. I still work at home with the resources that I have and never seem to fully relax until the official 'closing time' is here.

I am tired of winter with what seems to be storm after storm (another is due on Friday), so I needed a touch of summer. I looked over photos that I had taken in warmer weather, full of sun and fresh fruit and flowers. As long as I don't look out the window, I can almost pretend its summer - at least for a few moments.

But there are some benefits to ice and snow, as you'll find if you're in Chicago in February. For the entire month, Millennium Park will host the Museum of Modern Ice. Canadian artist Gordon Halloran is installing his signature ice paintings - Paintings Below Zero -both in the Chase Promenade and also within the ice skating rink itself.

Situated behind Millennium Park’s famous Cloud Gate sculpture, Halloran will create his largest and most spectacular installation to date, a monumental and colorful ice wall measuring 95 feet long and nearly 12 feet tall.

Halloran first developed his idea of painting on ice in the early ’90s. It came out of his boyhood experience flooding backyard ice rinks for pickup hockey games with his brothers. “I would stand out in the moonlight and look at the reflection of the light on the smooth surface. I was obsessed with the illumination. I’ve always loved the way ice freezes, moves and forms.”

Other cities and countries take advantage of frigid temperatures and turn them into artistic and tourism related events. Quebec has a most wonderful Ice Hotel created each year that I must make the trek to see and actually stay in simply out of curiosity's sake. Or try Sweden's Ice Bar in Stockholm. Entry includes a parka,, gloves and a shot of Absolut vodka served in your very own ice glass.

Of course there is always Winterlude in Ottawa each February for the winter afficianados. Skating on Rideau Canal, ice sculptures, snow sculptures, music, people - its an experience.