This artist lost his collaborator and friend, so he's memorialized him...in snow
Snow carver Donald Watt shows you the massive sculptural monument made in honour of Michael Lane
Donald Watt is known internationally for his snow sculptures. He's based in Whitehorse, but he's traveled as far as Japan, Russia and Italy to carve his monumental scenes. Watt's been doing this for over 30 years — touring and participating in snow carving competitions. But now, he's thinking about retirement.
For many years, one of Watt's partners in snow carving has been Michael Lane. They met through Lane's wife when Watt was headed to a competition in Ottawa and needed a third teammate. Lane had never carved snow before, but he was excited to try it. The resulting sculpture wasn't the best one Watt had ever finished, but Lane had so much fun doing it that they began carving together all the time. Together, they won competitions across Canada as well as in Russia, Austria, Japan, Switzerland, Italy and the United States.
But the last few years of their partnership were shadowed by Lane's declining health when he was diagnosed with rapid onset dementia. He began losing his abilities — even his sense of his own identity — but he never lost his love of snow carving.
Lane passed away on January 3, 2017. In this video by filmmaker Heidi J. Loos, you'll get to know Watt and Lane's friendship and see the memorial sculpture the team — and anybody who wanted to contribute — carved in his memory this past February.
Watt's clay sculptures are currently on view at Yukon Artists @ Work Gallery in Whitehorse, Yukon. To see more of his work, visit his website here.
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