It isn't Zeus. It isn't Thor. It isn't Moses.
If you guessed Old Man Winter, you're pretty close. Made entirely of snow, a typical snowman it is not.
Rural Neosho resident Jeffrey Jones has sculpted a giant bust of a god-like character, complete with massive curly beard and staff, in the front yard of his home off of Limekiln Drive.
So just what exactly is this snow creature? According to Jones, it is simply his own personification of snow.
And tomorrow it may be something else.
“The snow is a gift and we might as well use it,” Jones said.
He said it took him about 10 hours total, over Saturday and Sunday, to create the snow sculpture. He used a masonry trowel and a butter knife.
Jones has been a professional commercial sculptor for more than 25 years, making prototypes for manufacturers and even sculpting action figures for the toy industry. Today he sculpts and sells electric guitars from his home.
So when he and wife Donna Divine, who works at First Community Bank in Neosho, ventured outside last weekend, Jones saw a limitless supply of raw material to have some fun with.
“We started like everybody else starts making a snowman,” Jones said. “We rolled up big balls of snow and put them on top of each other. Then I thought 'wait a second. I'm a sculptor. I can't just make a regular snowman!'”
Jones said that when he began sculpting the figure, he wasn't sure what it would be. When he used to travel the country creating exhibition sand sculptures, Jones said he was usually given a theme or maybe even a sketch to work from. This time, he simply envisioned as he worked.
The sculpture almost became a fairy or an angel holding a guitar. But as he started blocking it off, Jones saw in the white shapeless mass an old man with a bushy beard and staff.
“It kind of took off on its own and almost basically designed itself,” Jones said.
The designed staff, by the way, is also entirely made of snow. Jones said he almost put a big stick in the figure's clenched hand, but thought 'nah, I'll be a purist and make it out of snow.'”
Unfortunately, the sculpture is starting to melt — or evaporate — a little, Jones said. But he doesn't plan to patch it up. Instead, Jones said he will just create something else.
“I'm probably going to turn him into a hippie chick playing a guitar,” he said.
