Jacksonville ice sculptor creates art with an electric chain saw

Ask Mike Riesmeyer to create an image using pencil and paper and you'll probably be disappointed with the results.

He can't even draw a good stick dog, he said.

But give him an electric chain saw and a 300-pound block of ice, and Riesmeyer becomes an artist.

In the 30-plus years that he has been sculpting ice, he's carved everything from fire engines and eagles to martini glasses and dragons. Dolphins and swans, popular at wedding receptions, are almost second nature to him.

The self-taught Riesmeyer doesn't know why he's much better with a chain saw than with a pencil. He suspects it's the ability to visualize in three dimensions rather than two.

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In any case, sculpting ice is an "artistic outlet" that he has largely turned into a career through his one-man business, Designer Ice.

On even the most scorching summer day in Northeast Florida, Riesmeyer still dresses for the bitter cold if he plans to step into his small freezer studio, where the temperature is 22 degrees. With a cap, gloves and a heavy coat, "I look like an Eskimo," he said.

He does most of his sculpting in the studio. Occasionally he does demonstrations as well, like the ones he expects to do during WinterFest at Adventure Landing in Jacksonville Beach.

He's carved on location when the heat and humidity are overwhelming, as well as in less oppressive conditions. Either way, Riesmeyer is still working outdoors with ice in Florida.

"You're at the mercy of the elements," he said. "In most demos, you have to be careful, but also hurry."

Business typically picks up during the holidays, as requests come in for glistening centerpieces for galas, company parties and holiday-themed gatherings.

This year, Riesmeyer is busy with another project as well: He's in the process of building a new studio.

When finished, the 12-by-20-foot space will give him more elbow room that he had in his first studio, an 8-by-12-foot structure.

In the meantime, he's doing his sculpting in the 5-by-10 trailer freezer he uses to transport finished works and blocks of ice for demonstrations.

LEARN BY DOING

Riesmeyer, 54, grew up in Pittsburgh and studied to become a chef at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

He had exactly one day of instruction in ice sculpting at culinary school. His first sculpture: a cornucopia.

"I picked the easiest thing I could find," he said.

There wasn't much emphasis on the skill because most chefs don't end up doing anything with it.

But Riesmeyer did. He was already well into the process of "learning by doing" when he came to Jacksonville in 1985 and began working as a hotel banquet chef. For the next eight years, he took on as many requests for ice sculptures as he could.

By 1993, however, he was burning out from the demanding hours. When he decided to leave the culinary world behind, ice sculpture was "the one thing I still enjoyed," he said.

Carving ice wasn't Riesmeyer's only path to reinventing himself. He went to massage school, and eventually went to work for a doctor as a massage and neuro-muscular therapist.

About the same time, his now-former wife formed a catering business. Riesmeyer decided to start his own business as well, and had a freezer studio in the same building where she ran her operation.

Requests for sculptures at wedding receptions and corporate gatherings helped Designer Ice get off to a strong start. Working with 40-by-20-inch blocks of ice, he'd create full working ice bars, ice luges and company logos along with the dolphins and swans.

His primary tools: an electric chain saw and router bits in every shape and size. "Chisels and gouges are still used, but not as much," Riesmeyer said. "That's the old way."

In any case, "Your tools become extensions of your hands," he said.

Riesmeyer has had remarkably few mishaps, he said, considering he's done about 3,000 sculptures. But he has vivid memories of the day something went really wrong.

He had carved two fencing figures for a wedding reception (the bride and groom were both fencers). One figure was doing a lunge, the other a parry.

He was moving the sculptures across the parking lot into the hotel in Atlantic Beach when one was blown over by a strong wind and shattered on the pavement.

The couple turned out to be very forgiving.

CROWD APPROVAL

Sculpting ice is solitary work, except when it isn't.

Riesmeyer enjoys the isolation of his studio as he gets comfortably "in my zone."

But he also finds great satisfaction in working on location in front of an audience. At last year's WinterFest at Adventure Landing, he created characters from the animated Disney film "Frozen" such as Olaf the Snowman and the Marshmallow Snow Monster. He used a fog machine to make it look like the snow monster was breathing frost.

The reaction from audiences - what Riesmeyer calls "the wow factor" - is "one of the things that makes me happiest."

His proudest moment in front of a crowd occurred in fall 2003 at the St. Augustine Fire and Ice Festival, a chili cook-off and amateur ice carving competition. In a demonstration the previous year, Riesmeyer had created a phoenix. He used seven blocks of ice.

This time, he set his ambitions even higher: a knight with a shield, and an 8-foot dragon. He used 14 blocks of ice, and his arms started cramping before he was done. He lit the knight with white lights, the dragon with green, and hooked up a fog machine to the dragon to make it look like it was breathing smoke.

As Riesmeyer finished, he turned around to see hundreds of people had gathered. Many expressed awe at the results.

"I couldn't even tell you what the sculptures weighed," he said. "Thousands of pounds."

Depending on the surrounding temperature, and where the sculpture is placed - in the direct sun, for example - Riesmeyer's work usually begins to melt in a matter of hours.

But the impermanence of his creations doesn't bother him.

"It's served its purpose," he said. "After your first 1,000, you get over it."

David Crumpler: (904) 359-4164