Jet lag, a brief sniffle and a dollop of exhaustion after a busy weeks worth of sculpting… are nearly behind me now!
The 3rd Ice Bear now resides outside the City Hall in Quebec City. It seems like a week was actually a month… so much was put into the time. I went out to Canada to create the bear for Equiterre and the Hotel de Glace (Ice Hotel) and their sponsors. My team this time consisted of Toby Sherborne who was not only Mr Admin but also camera man, lighting specialist and you name it …. he did it… and Duncan Hamilton. Duncan and I have now carved 3 bears so we know the score! We were also joined by Peter Boy and his brother Jack…and their interpreter Talicia… both very highly accomplished Inuit sculptors… their prime subject is the Polar Bear! To work with Peter and Jack was a complete delight. They immediately settled into the team and fully understood where we needed to go. The Ice Bear was conceived in the Arctic in their country… but by me a wee British sculptor… so to have such direct participation and a unity in the goal was perfect… indeed we made firm and lasting friendships.
The week started with fun and games hosted by Hotel de Glace. We were given a studio in the Ice Hotel and asked to create!!! That was a brilliant ice breaker, forgive the pun, as it meant that the we could all show off our strengths or otherwise and form a team.
Equiterre and Hotel de Glace proved to be perfect partners in the effort to take the Ice Bear message further and through Canada.
The skeleton was frozen amongst millions of Cranberries outside Quebec… and managed by Hotel de Glace’s Marc Lacasse… spot on job in all respects.
The Ice was delivered to the most beautiful square outside of the City Hall… and to work we went.
With a day extra in hand we had time to relax (ish) into the sculpting of the bear… the ice was perfect and a smidge clearer than on bears 1 & 2… the skeleton was not visible to the general public but to us there was that faint shadow of bronze… the hint of a lighthouse to guide us in… a VERY satisfactory result indeed.
Thursday was unveiling day and press calls… Quebec is delighted as are Equiterre and Hotel de Glass. My thanks go out to all concerned for helping us to pull off this third success.
The Canadian Bear is going to remain in Quebec for about 10 days before it then travels to Ottawa… It will thereby be attending 2 very prominent winter festivals in 2 magnificent Canadian Cities. It will then be travelling to Montreal where it will be allowed to melt in its own time. There was hopes that it could go to Vancouver to the Winter Olympics but sadly due to a lack of funding, availability of space and time it will not go… BUT it is hoped that with a refreeze it will travel to Toronto in June for the Summit meeting, a very prominent and appropriate leg on its worldwide mission.
Well done all who played a part in Ice Bear No.3 … and THANK YOU!
Looking towards the future… we are working on trying to get a bear to Washington DC for Earth Day in April and to NY to the Christies Green Auction… all depends on dosh and sponsorship… Then to the Far East … more on that later!
As ever
Mark
