Frostbite: Michigan Art Teacher Goes Viral Making Shark Snow Sculptures

A Michigan woman has been making waves on social media with her great white snow shark sculptures.

Following a snowstorm last week, high school art teacher Jennifer Ramirez spent three days making snow sculptures of sharks, WXTZ reported.

“Wednesday we had the big snowfall and I shoveled all of it into a big ol pile, and then I think it was the next day, I separated the piles and started sculpting on Friday and finished them on Saturday,” she recalled.

Ramirez molded the heaps of snow into a trio of the sea’s fiercest predators after some “four to five hours” of work, MLive noted, explaining that she used a mixture of food coloring and water to give the sharks their familiar blue-grey tint. 

For their eyes, Ramirez told a fellow Facebook user that she used “charcoal blocks.”  

Ramirez’s creations delighted onlookers and soon gained traction on social media, earning over 4,500 likes, 2,700 comments, and 21,ooo shares on Facebook as of Tuesday evening. 

Countless admirers complimented Ramirez on the quality and realism of her sharks, with one Facebook user saying, “Wow! These are fantastic! They look so real like they are really swimming in water”

“How cool! What a good use for our snowy week in the Mitten State!,” another commenter said.

Ramirez’s art has inspired references to classic shark movie Jaws (1975).

“I get mostly that on Facebook, ‘you’re going to need a bigger yard. You’re going to need a bigger boat, you’re going to need a bigger lawn,” she told WXYZ. 

‘There’s not enough joy in the world,” Ramirez said, reflecting on her motivations, “and if I can share joy through my art and bring joy then I’m going to keep doing it.”

True to her word, Ramirez already has a few ideas for the next winter storm. 

“I’m hoping for lots more snow,” she told MLive. “I’m thinking I need to make big rocks with seals or penguins or both.”

You can follow Michael Foster on Twitter at @realmfoster.