BUTTERFLY KISSES FROM THE SWEETHEART CITY

TEAM USA COLORADO IN NAYORO, JAPAN - February, 2007

Artists Randy Amys, Steve Mercia, and Tim Upham, and Lisa Cameron who is making a documentary of their work.

 

THE BLOCK AWAITS

"We arrived in Nayoro just in time to drop our bags in the room and go to the Welcome Party.  People here are very friendly and the conditions are perfect.  The local radio station did a studio interview with Randy and the snowman's reputation has preceded him here.  I guess they really do look at the artist's resume.  We are looking forward to creating "Butterfly Kisses" for the people of Northern Hokkido .  They really like to Love-land connection."

 

THE MODEL

The goal is to carve the block into something resembling the model.

 

THEY CAME, THEY SAW

"On Thursday morning we unpacked our tools and prepared for the competition.  At 11:00 there was an event meeting where everything was explained.  After lunch was the opening ceremony and then we started carving."

 

THE END OF THE DAY, THURSDAY

"Due to the short period of time (54 hours total) we are able to carve as long as we want."

 

DAY TWO - JAMMING TO CLASSIC ROCK

"We made a lot of progress today even though Steve had a problem and cut the top of the dart off.  Seems this snow isn't as strong as they say it is.  Randy spent the afternoon creating a new top.  Tim and Steve worked on releasing the butterflies.  The local radio station played a block of classic rock for us this afternoon, we jammed to the sounds of Elvis, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and the Beatles. The weather has been cold and we saw the sun for a little while."

"Tonight they let us pick the colors we wanted on our piece and as you can see we chose red.  It looks more like orange."

"Tomorrow night we will experiment with some other colors to see what looks best. We glued the dart back together just before we were done for the evening.  No injuries to report although Lisa has a little cold.  We are nursing her out of it. We will go out early tomorrow morning and work all day til 5pm when the judging takes place."

 

DAY THREE

 

"Wow what a great place to do a snow sculpture. The weather this morning was very cold and even though the sun was out off and on for most of the day, it was still cold enough to cut the hearts out all the way. The children loved the heart candies that Tim brought once they knew it was candy. We had many compliments as we were finishing our valentine to the people of Nayoro. We hope everyone likes our finished work as much as we enjoyed creating it."

 

THE WINNERS

	CZECH REPUBLIC	JAPAN 1	JAPAN 2	JAPAN 3	SPAIN	USA
[click on thumbnail for larger image]
FIRST PLACE					X
SECOND PLACE		X
THIRD PLACE			X
PEOPLE'S CHOICE					X
ARTIST'S CHOICE

Peoples Choice - Spain; 3rd Place - Japan 2; 2nd Place - Japan 1; First Place - Spain

"This year's champions were Spain, with their underwater scene of the manta ray. The blue light gave it a feeling of actually being under the water.

The Czech piece really pushed the limits. We did not win anything because we had to use water to glue our piece back together and they do not allow the use of water.

The German's had the same problem too, because when they cut away the support part of their piece separated. I had never heard of a competition not allowing water, but they pride themselves on their pristine blocks. There was also three other competitions going on at the same time. The local children, region and the university all had pieces. There are some great sculptors over here.

We hope you have enjoyed the past three weeks as much as we have. Thanks for all the support during this marathon. Randy just completed 7 days straight of sculpting and is totally spent, sacrificing his body for the pieces. Steve has got a new nickname "The Animal" like the Sesame Street character for his never-ending energy and willingness to do anything to get the job done. Tim is always there for great input and positive support throughout the competition. Also, let's not forget Lisa, whose constant filming and shooting has given us some great footage for a documentary."

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