Snow sculpture posthumously honours Festival du Voyageur artist

When snow sculptor Gary Ross died in December last year, his three adult children decided his art would not die with him. They took up his tools hand saws, ice chippers, chisels and created a memorial for him in snow.

The Big Catch is a celebration of their late father, who began snow sculpting in 1978 and had been a longtime fixture at Festival du Voyageur.The sculpture is on the festival grounds at Fort Gibraltar.

"My dad loved sculpting and he loved fishing ...so we thought we would build a tribute to him holding a fish," said son Keith.

Keith and his two sisters, along with other friends and family, created the giant snow bust of their father over the course of a week, and finished Friday nightin time for opening day of the annual festival.

"It means a lot to be able to honour him and have people see the sculpture and be able to do this with my sisters and spend time with my family," Keith said. "And taking the time together would mean so much to my dad."

"It's full of heart and warmth and Gary would have absolutely loved it," saidChristel Lanthier, snow sculpture co-ordinator for the festival.

"[Gary]was a good, really cheerful guy to have around," Lanthier said.

The snow-carved memorial is being celebrated in a new, short video by Sisler Create filmmaking students Gino Villaceran, Erin Tierney, and Shaina Maralit.

CBC Creator Network and Sisler Create,which offers multimedia training and experience, have been collaborating on a storytelling project since September 2022.

Meet the filmmakers

More about Project POV: Sisler Create

CBC Manitoba's Project POV: SislerCreate is a new storytelling collaboration that partners filmmaking students with CBC journalists to produce short videos.

During fall 2022, CBC journalists led storytelling and producing workshops over several weeks with filmmaking students at theCreate program at Sisler High School.

The program focuses on education and career pathways into the creative industries. Students can take courses in animation, film, game design, visual effects, graphic design and interactive digital media.