​All the Colors of the Igloo

The winter season has a reputation for being one of the gloomier times of the year, even in a place as acclimated to it as North Dakota. The short days and lack of variety of color seem to bring out the melancholy aspect of people. Shelby Steidl, a senior art student at North Dakota State University, had that in mind when she embarked on her latest project, a vibrantly-colored igloo located on NP Avenue west of Renaissance Hall.

“I wanted to create a work of art with lots of color and a vibrant quality for the winter season,” Steidl said. After working almost 50 hours on the frozen art piece the structure stands about five and a half feet tall and can easily fit up to five people sitting down. She encourages people to enjoy the igloo, whether that means chilling inside of it or just observing it. “I’ve stood on it, sat in it, it’s very structurally sound.”

But why build an igloo? There were a few reasons. One reason was despite the fact the Fargo-Moorhead area often shares the frigid temperatures of Alaska during our rougher bouts with the winter season, we do not often see igloos constructed here due to the lack of an Inuit population, so building an igloo has a certain sense of novelty. Another reason was that it gave Steidl a chance to work on something out of her element.

While Shelby has had her art put on exhibit before in the local art galleries, most of her output has been in the realm of photography. “It was a nice change to work on something outside with my hands when I was always cooped up in a darkroom.”

After getting some pointers from Dr. Warren Christianson, a professor at NDSU who had worked on crafting an igloo in the past, Steidl got to work. To create the blocks, she used empty half-gallon milk cartons to freeze water into bricks. She would also put in different hues of food coloring so that each row of bricks composing the igloo would be a different color. All in all, she had to make anywhere between 350 to 400 ice bricks.

Luckily, the YMCA where Shelby substitute teaches at was willing to collect milk cartons for the project, and even let their dairy distributer Dean Foods from Moorhead know, so altogether she was able to collect hundreds of milk cartons for the igloo’s construction. As for freezing the blocks without having to worry about fluctuations in temperature, she was able to use large sinks, the animal sciences department freezer and an outdoor kiln room in the art department in order to make them. After that, it was just a matter of moving the blocks from storage to where she was building the igloo, then putting down the bricks layer by layer using snow as a kind of mortar.

One unexpected result of using the food coloring to dye the bricks was that different food colorings seemed to freeze differently, creating a variation in the final product. Some of the blocks were opaque, while others were relatively translucent. “I’ve had people tell me that it reminds them of stained glass windows,” Steidl said. Apparently it’s quite the sight to behold when sitting inside with the sun overhead.

This has been a winter with a lot of fluctuation in the weather, so depending on how long any recent warm weather lasts, Steidl predicts that the igloo will still be safe and sound to sit in for at least another week. If the weather drops below freezing again, it could be even longer. As of the time of my interviewing her last week the structure has hardly been fazed by the upswing in temperature. So if you happen to be traveling near the downtown fire department and Renaissance Hall in the next week or two, be sure to keep an eye out for Fargo’s latest frozen art project, because it won’t be around forever.