Tyson Whistler: Carving for a Community
One of our favorite events of the year, the Marietta Ice Festival returns this Saturday, January 18th as part of Marietta Main Street’s winter schedule. Sponsored by Glenwood Community, the Ice Festival features expertly carved ice sculptures on display throughout downtown and a live carving at the Armory on Front Street. While much coordination goes into putting on this event each year, its success centers on the artistic vision and creation of local artist, Tyson Whistler.
Tyson Whistler of Whistler Ice Works began carving ice almost twenty years ago, teaching himself new techniques and using each sculpture as a learning experience. He started by purchasing a few blocks of ice a year to carve for holidays and special events. Now, he has his own freezers, block-making machine, and an arsenal of saws, tools, and bits.
“What was once a small Friday Fire and Ice night has evolved into a Saturday afternoon and evening Ice Festival drawing hundreds of visitors, tourists, family, and friends from hours away,” said Tyson. “It's great to see people out bundled up and supporting the art and our community.”
The Marietta Ice Festival was originally launched in 2017 as the program and theme for the inaugural First Friday. Since then, the festival has grown both in number of sculptures and regional popularity. Communities across Southeast Ohio have enlisted Tyson to help them start their own Ice Festivals.
“This will be the 9th year of putting ice sculptures on the streets of historic downtown Marietta. It has been awesome working with Marietta Main Street to produce a really cool event in the cold month of January, and we’ve tripled the number of sculptures for the public to view since year one,” said Tyson. “This year, there will be new designs and a nice combination of 3D style sculptures, logo style sculptures, and photo op cutout style sculptures.”
This year’s event will use twenty 300 lb blocks – or three tons – of ice. Tyson said he began freezing blocks of ice the first of October, each block taking several days to freeze. “The machine will continue to run with the final block for the live sculpture being pulled out Friday night.”
Since its inception, Tyson has created most, if not all, of the ice sculptures for the Ice Festival. Each sculpture begins as a 300 lb block of ice that Tyson carefully chisels and carves down to its final form. To map out his designs, Whistler uses a projector to draw a template for each piece on tracing paper that is sized and frozen onto the ice before carving, allowing him to move more quickly. This technique also allows Whistler to create more elaborate designs, especially those requiring more than one block of ice. Still, there are some designs he chooses to carve freehand.
“Each sculpture comes with its own difficulties, though the more pieces a sculpture is created from the more of a process it becomes to finish,” he said. “The total volume of the sculptures for the single event is truly the real challenging part over the process of the individual sculpture.”
Each year, Tyson looks forward to hearing new ideas from the sponsors and creating new sculpture designs that he hasn’t before attempted. “I enjoy the process of producing art from a unique medium. Unfortunately, as I get older though, the physicality to keep up with the strength of the cutting process gets more difficult,” he said.
While many professional sculptors now use CNC milling machines for most of their carving process, Whistler strives to achieve the same polished look and complex designs using only hand-operated tools. It’s hard work, but he’s up to the challenge and uses each opportunity to further develop his skills.
Most of the techniques used for sculpting become repetitive and don't change too much once you find the method that is successful for you, he said. “With the volume of sculptures being produced, I decided to stay within my comfort of designs to ensure successful pieces are created for each location.”
Though he’s only halfway through carving at the time of this interview, Tyson said the frog nestled among a cluster of mushrooms is one of his favorites. “It turned out incredible, each item in the sculpture looks spot on, and the whole sculpture was done freehand with no templates,” he said. “I also may be attempting a scorpion, its body shape could transfer to ice well and really pop when completed.”
Eighteen pre-carved ice sculptures will be on display throughout downtown from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Saturday, January 18th, each a unique design. Visitors can admire several sculptures on the Armory Lawn. In addition to the pieces carved in advance, Whistler will do a live carving on the Armory Lawn beginning at 1:30 pm, sponsored by Glenwood Community.
Carving so many sculptures is a big job for one person, but Whistler continues to rise to the challenge each year, creating impressive works of art that will only last for as long as the weather permits. We thank Tyson for creating this experience for our community and sharing his unique artwork with the world!
Clutch Collective is proud to join Wit & Whimzy in sponsoring one of Tyson’s incredible sculptures again this year! Head downtown this Saturday to see our ice sculpture in front of our shop at 152 Front Street.