These artful efforts may not compare with Simon Beck's snow art in scale and artistry, yet even the humble snowman has forceful presence, if enough are present.
If art is a function of scale and effort, then indeed this singular snowman is elevated to the realm of Art, but is big effort enough? What makes something art, or not?
If art is about making a statement as well as surprising us with humour, pathos, the unknown and the unimaginable, is part of its statement about the nature of the materials used, and of time itself in the process?
Will the feet of snow and the feet of snow create a dialog of impermanence for the passersby, or is art just a distraction on the way to the taxi?
Sometimes I think what makes something art is not the lofty, consciously considered explanation, it is the physical moment that stops us, just after we categorize with our calculating look an ordinary thing, and just before our senses transform. That moment between knowing and un-knowing, is art.
