Iceman sculpture balloons into hobby

The promise of a snowstorm and more cold was good news for Dave Ruhland and the wavy-haired Iceman he made by freezing about 50 water balloons around 3,000 ice cubes in a stacked rainbow of yellow, orange and green.

The burst of sherbet color on the front lawn of his apartment building on a drab but busy stretch of Sheridan Drive in the Town of Tonawanda has had people slowing down as they pass and sometimes even pulling over to pose for pictures beside it.

I try to brighten up the gloomy day as best I can, Ruhland said.

While Ruhland makes his living in construction, painting and rehabbing apartments, for the last few winters, he has made a hobby of building icemen at 2719 Sheridan. His pastime part art sculpture, part ice construction experiment has changed his take on winter.

While lots of people are sick of the cold and snow, hes eager for todays promised snowstorm and another crack at icy art.

I was probably the only one who was like, Please stay colder longer, he admitted Tuesday as he surveyed his work on the snowy lawn. The adrenaline gets going ... Before you know it, it doesnt even bother you.

Ruhland had not yet started to mend his Iceman 4, which was partially worn out by the weekends warm weather. After the 40-degree temperatures, only one side of his ice skin was intact.

Half of its ice-cube skeleton was exposed in appetizing layers of yellow, orangey-red and greenish-blue, like a tall snow cone of many flavors.

Its a pretty cool view, he said. Thats part of the fun, seeing how he melts.

It had taken a week and a half of painstaking work for him to build this 7-foot-tall man.

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Iceman sculpture balloons into hobby