Meet Rex Covington | Ice sculptor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rex Covington and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rex, we’d love for you to start things off by telling us something about your industry that we and others not in the industry might be unaware of?
Making ice sculptures is a delicate business. The ice is fragile and when sculpting mistakes happen, there’s usually no going back. Marble and wood sculpting is similar unless one is willing to glue back any missteps.
Given this challenge, a degree of experience is very useful.
There is a rather extensive amount of equipment needed to get off the ground.
A rather industrial work space with drainage is the first requirement. Many carvers, including myself, start working outside providing there is shelter from sun and wind.
To create a business however, you will need a large freezer. Mine is roughly 20′ x 30′ with 10′ hight ceilings.
The tools required are also quite extensive. Although most ice sculpting work is done with a chainsaw, there is a long list of other convenient tools that the professional sculptor uses. Some of these are chisels, numerous die grinders with custom ice bits, drills, hot plate with aluminum plate for grafting and a blow torch.
This list may seem daunting, but many of the tools are acquired over time. I for example made my first ice sculpture with only a 1″ chisel. You will also need ice block machines which are expensive, or a source from which to purchase them. After all that, trucks to deliver the ice is quite necessary and a source of dry ice would also help tremendously. In the end, despite the glamor, a rather extensive logistics setup is quite needed.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
LA Ice Art was created to manufacture art. I love art and being a creative person was indispensable for me as an individual making his way in the world..
I don’t pretend that it was easy and certainly very hard work went into the entire 38 year process that Ive been doing ice sculptures. But the real ingredient to success was a solid effort of business and marketing. I’m sure I helped myself by being personal and likable to others who were able to assist me. It likely also made a difference that I was born with a degree of talent and also studied art in high school and college.
With todays internet and marketing avenues, finding exposure and branding is just a matter of effort.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
LA is a vibrant city and I do love restaurants and dancing. If it’s hot, I’d suggest the beach.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Barrett Covington

Website: https://laiceart.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laiceart/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rex-covington-071b2b218/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rex.covington