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Snow artist brings characters to life in Greenfield

MUNCIE, Ind.(NewsLink) -- On the corner of Forest and State street in Greenfield, Ind. stands a familiar face in front of Rick Hortons house. That is Grogu from "The Mandalorian."

“It took around seven hours start to finish” Horton said.

Before the snow artist made Grogu, a lot of planning and work went into it.

“You know I have to draw like dimensions and look at lot of pictures to memorize him so when I go out there and make it, I get it right. I even made a head out of clay for Grogu to try to help me get the dimensions right.”

It all started with a bust of Homer Simpson in 1997 when him and his daughter were playing in the snow. Since then, for almost 20 years now, it has snowballed into a sculpture every winter.

“I got better at carving over the years, and it just turned into something I never expected.” Horton said.

Most of Horton's sculptures only last 3-5 days, but baby Yoda, however, has lasted two weeks now, attracting a lot of attention.

“It was the right timing, and I knew it was a popular character, it went over pretty well.”

What is most shocking to Horton is the traffic on his Facebook page, with his sculpture this year.

“Now with Grogu, it has reached 18 million people, it feels good. It makes me happy to see my work being recognized. You know, I’ve had students ask me how did you know you wanted to be a snow artist? And I said well, I didn’t plan any of this, it kind of just happened.”

For any comments or concerns, contact the author at tbkonieczny@bsu.edu.