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Sprawling 'Snow Drawings' Transform a Mountain into Art

Artist Sonja Hinrichsen creates her massive 'Snow Drawings' with footprints, powder, and a little help from her friends.
We Are The Water, 2014

Sonja Hinrichsen’s Snow Drawings are like a stunning cross between cartography and crop circles. From 2009 to earlier this year, Hinrichsen has taken us to winter wonderlands of pristine powder through her large-scale physical drawings. At first glance, these “drawings” look as though they are made from pencil on watercolor paper, or even embroidered thread on canvas. Taking a closer look, one sees those “lines” are actually footprints, her canvas the untouched landscapes of snowy mountainsides.

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We Are The Water, her latest piece from earlier this year, was an effort for Hinrichsen and 50 volunteers to “collaboratively recreate the original flow of the Yampa River and its 4 main tributaries within Routt County, CO,” in four hours time. After the physical creation took place, the project concluded with a three-day-long seminar surrounding various water issues and systems in the Colorado and throughout the United States.

We Are The Water, 2014

The project began in 2009 during Hinrichsen's three-month artist residency at the Anderson Ranch Art Center in the Rocky Mountains. In 2011, Hinrichsen created her second work, Snow Drawings in Hayden, and has been producing them every year since. The works include 2012's Snow Drawings at Rabbit Ears Pass, wherein Hinrichsen made the project more collaborative though the involvement of others, and documented the project using aerial video and photography, and last year’s Snow Drawings at Catamount Lake, which involved 60 volunteers for a weekend-long project.

In the original project's description, Hinrichsen states that she would create the designs in her head and then transfer them onto the snow, the landscape being the “canvas” and herself being the “pen.” Today, Hinrichsen’s annual Snow Drawings evolve and take new shapes on as they respond to their landscapes through variations in time, documentation and number of participants, and her continuous exploration of Colorado’s natural environments.

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Catamount Lake, 2013

Rabbit Ear Pass, 2012

Hayden Colorado, 2011

Snowmass Village, 2009

Get lost in all of Sonja Hinrichsen’s Snow Drawings on her website.

h/t Designboom

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