Get Your Milk, Bread & Toilet Paper: Local Man Creates Unique Snow Sculpture
WEST KITTANNING (KDKA) -- In a yard in West Kittanning, snow sculptor Ben Valasek shows why shoppers get in line when snow is in the forecast. He creates an oversized jug of milk, loaf of bread and toilet paper.
"This is sort of the last three things you can find on the shelves before the big one hits," the artist says.
A teaspoon is his sculpting tool. Last year, a nine-hour project turned into the face of Albert Einstein. He also said goodbye to Star Trek's Mr. Spock. But he says he had more snow to work with than he does this time around.
"This year, I had to physically roll 50 snowballs, carry them over here, and pack them on top of each other. So it was an effort just to get the snow this year," Valasek said.
Giant "slices of bread" seem to hang in space.
"You have to make sure you don't have too much weight on the top heavy side that it's going to collapse. Once the weather starts to heat up, those will be the first things to go," he says.
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In addition to his day job as a physical therapist, Valasek also coaches elementary basketball, and leads a popular local band named "The Growlers."
In 2013, when the Pirates clinched a winning season, he and the band came out with a song called "We've Been Waiting Twenty Years." It celebrates a brief moment in time, like a snow sculpture.
"Hopefully, at the end of the day, people like it," the artist says.