Matthew Stoddart, lead ice artist for Lexington Ice Sculptures, has competed in ice-carving competitions across the country.
From sculpting frozen punch bowls and drink luges to an entire ice bar and towering, award-winning, record-breaking sculptures, Lexington’s Matthew Stoddart has no problem putting his career ambitions on ice.
Stoddart, 24, is lead ice artist for Lexington Ice Sculptures, a sister company of Seasons Caterings and Special Occasions on North Ashland Avenue. His parents, Kellie and Michael Stoddart, founded the catering company in the mid-1990s, eventually adding the ice-carving business.
Matthew Stoddart won his first ice carving award at age 13. His father, who was 2012 Professional Ice Carving Champion of the National Ice Carving Association, helped train him. Since then, father and son have traveled to competitions together as a team and as solo competitors.
The ice carving competition season runs from late December through mid-March, and Stoddart travels often to New York, Michigan, Ohio, Alaska and Canada to pit his skills against the industry’s best. He’s won more than 50 awards to date, and his father, about 75.
In one competition, the student surpassed the master when Matthew’s carving of a wasp bested his father’s grasshopper carving.
“I didn’t care about anyone else in the competition but my dad — his No. 1 single block design versus mine,” he said. “And I beat him by .8 of a point and got first. He was proud!”
Matthew also hones his skills during four-day ice sculpting boot camps and at competitions, meeting and working with the industry’s best sculptors.
To make the ice carvings crystal clear, water is first treated with UV light as well as micron and reverse-osmosis filtration. The water is frozen from the bottom up in tanks as a circulation pump agitates the water. It can take days to make two 40-by-20-by-10-inch blocks of ice for sculpting, with each block weighing 300 pounds. Some projects require much more.
The optimum temperatures for carving are between 15 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit, Stoddart said. An even-colder freezer at their Lexington facility houses finished projects and stores ice blocks.
Tools of the trade can include a band saw to flatten ice, syringes and water bottles to freeze ice together, a specially modified high speed chainsaw for larger cuts, chisels and custom ice-grinding bits, a propane torch and variety of other hand tools.
Lighting enhances the finished pieces, and photos, colored sand and glitter can also be suspended in the ice to create an intended effect.
It takes a minimum of six to 10 hours to design, sculpt and finish a project, depending on its complexity, and many often take days to complete, Stoddart said. Delivery and onsite installation can be arranged anywhere throughout Kentucky and beyond. The cost varies depending on size and complexity.
Finished pieces must be handled with great care. Because they’re so heavy, they’re typically cut into manageable pieces then wrapped with layers of foam, shrink wrap and blankets for transport in a refrigerated van, with final assembly performed onsite.
Accidents do happen, he said, but repairs can be made, and he takes them all in stride as learning experiences.
Stoddart said he loves sharing his passion of ice sculpting with others.
“I’m always open to sharing my knowledge,” he said.
One mammoth team project Stoddart was a part of during the 2016 World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks, Alaska, was titled “Cool Beans,” an ice carving that depicted the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. At 32 feet, it was the tallest ice sculpture in Alaskan history. He and other carvers worked on the project in full harness gear and helmets for more than six days.
Jon Price is an apprentice ice carver with Atlanta-based Ice Sculpture Inc. He’s known and worked on sculptures with Stoddart for about four years.
“Me and him are tight — we’re ice carving buddies,” Price said. “Matt, for his age, he’s beyond his skill level; beyond years. He has a cool style. I like how crisp his work is. He’s very knowledgeable.”
Price said Stoddart and his father, Michael, are known nationwide for their ice-carving chops.
“He stands out across the U.S. Everybody knows Matt Stoddart. He’s been on some big jobs. He’s been around for a long time.”
Stoddart said ice carvers he grew up admiring now ask him to work on projects with them. His talents have led to opportunities to travel and help create ice sculptures for photo shoots, movies and television productions, though nondisclosure agreements prevent him from elaborating. He travels to cities hosting ice festivals to create sculptures and conduct demonstrations, and has worked on the famed minus5 ICEBAR in Las Vegas.
In 2019, Stoddart was contacted by YouTube star ZHC to, over five days, recreate in 10,000 pounds of ice a fictional character ZHC had created. Afterward they destroyed it with great fanfare — and a flaming torch. The video has been viewed more than 18 million times.
“I got a few thousand followers from him … but there wasn’t a whole lot of business from it,” Stoddart said. Stoddart uses his skills in other ways for the catering business, carving elaborate designs into fruit and cheeses, and for pro-level pumpkin carving for fall displays. But eventually he hopes to do ice carving full time.
While some might not understand taking such pains to create something so temporary, with a lifespan of as little as four-to-eight hours, Stoddart sees it differently. He loves watching people touch the sculptures as their faces light up and they exclaim, “Wow!” while taking photos of his work.
“That’s kind of why I do what I do,” he said. “That reaction makes it for me. … Those memories are going to last a lifetime.”