MARYSVILLE — Chan Kitburi’s ice sculptures are the stuff of myths and legends.
The world champion carver from Marysville creates mermaids, dragons, fairies, unicorns and the like from enormous blocks of ice.
“I get inspired by mythology,” he said.
The retired mail carrier has carved thousands of ice sculptures for festivals, tournaments and private events. He and his team are two-time winners of the world’s largest ice sculpting contest, the World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks, Alaska, taking top honors in 2011 and 2015.
“It’s a shared honor,” he said. “It’s still, ‘Wow, I’m a world champion,’ but I have to give credit to my team.”
Kitburi has also competed in ice sculpture contests around the globe, including at the High on Ice Winter Festival in Fort St. John, B.C., Canada; the Cultural Olympics in Provo, Utah and Turin, Italy; the Karuizawa Winter Festival in Karuizawa, Nagano, Japan; and the Ice Magic Festival in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
It’s a disappearing art form. Depending on the climate, ice sculptures usually last only a few days or weeks.
Kitburi picked up a chainsaw in 1994. His brother Kla, now a retired chef who studied art in Bangkok, was his teacher.
“I looked up to him,” he said. “I was interested in art.”
Originally from Bangkok, Kituburi moved to Marysville in 2004. By that time, he had a decade of ice sculpting in his mailbag.
He sees similarities between his career and his hobby.
“They’re kind of the same,” said Kitburi, who has netted six gold medals from the National Ice Carvers Association. “You have to be fast and accurate. You have to cope with the elements.”
Kitburi’s team earned first place in 2011 for “Clock of Salvador Dali,” an icy rendition of the surrealist painter’s work.
In 2015, his team won first place for “The Fighter,” portraying a monstrous dragon, its wings outspread, fighting a lone Roman soldier.
In Snohomish County, Kitburi has carved a snow queen for Windsor Square Senior Living in Marysville, a nutcracker for Everett’s Imagine Children’s Museum and a swan for the Lake Stevens Farmers Market that he later set afloat in the lake.
His favorite ice sculpture? It’s too hard to pick just one.
There’s the one Kitburi’s team made for the 2009 World Ice Art Championships, featuring King King towering over skyscrapers. It fetched the Alaska Governor’s Award.
“Wild Ride,” depicting a Persian goddess riding a mythical beast, won first place at a High on Ice Winter Festival in Canada.
And then there’s “Strengthen Me Just Once More” capturing the moment when the Bible’s Samson breaks free of his chains, which scored third place in the 2005 World Ice Art Championships.
Kitburi hasn’t opened his toolbox for competitions in 10 years. Teams work around the clock in freezing temperatures to transform enormous blocks of ice into detailed works of art. Now 64, it’s just too tough on Kitburi’s body.
“I’m getting too old,” he said. “It’s a lot of pressure. The last time I competed, I was getting cramps all over. It takes a toll.”
Still, he finds ice carving relaxing and enjoyable when he can spend just a few hours on a design.
“Chan’s sculptures are spectacular,” said Puyallup’s Janson Iwakami, 66, of Amazing Ice. Iwakami met Kitburi at the Seattle Center’s Winterfest, where they’ll both be carving this year. “He is so creative and meticulous.”
Kitburi makes his own ice in a block machine that keeps water circulating as it freezes so there are no bubbles or impurities. Once frozen, the ice is crystal clear.
The blocks at the championships weigh roughly 7,500 pounds each; Kitburi’s ice block machine makes 300-pound cubes.
“I love what I do,” Kitburi said. “Each block of ice gives me the opportunity to practice the craft.”
Kitburi uses a mix of hand and power tools, including chainsaw, grinders, chisels, handsaw and drills with special bits, to carve the ice.
His only limit is his imagination. He draws a design, transfers it to a paper template and then traces the drawing onto the ice with a chainsaw before chiseling away.
“You have to think outside the block.”
Contact writer Sara Bruestle at slbruestle@gmail.com.
IF YOU GO
You can catch Chan Kitburi at Seattle Center’s Winterfest. Kitburi will be ice sculpting on Saturday at the Mural Amphitheater. Artists will create original ice sculptures each Saturday from 12-2 p.m. during the festival, which runs this month through Dec. 31.
This story originally appeared in Sound & Summit magazine, The Daily Herald’s quarterly publication. Explore Snohomish and Island counties with each issue. Subscribe and receive four issues for $18. Call 425-339-3200 or go to soundsummitmagazine.com
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