World Art Utopia

Snow Octopus — St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, New York City

A large octopus sculpted from snow, its long tentacles curling across the snowy East Yard of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, with brick buildings of the East Village behind it
Artwork FileNew York City, USA

Snow Octopus

SeenFeb 2011

Maker reported as Joey Schaefer · 2011 · St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, East Village, New York City

Photo: Beyond My Ken / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); dated 2 February 2011; full photo, resized.

In late January 2011, someone used the snow covering the grounds of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, on Second Avenue in Manhattan’s East Village, to sculpt a large octopus. DNAinfo reported it on 29 January 2011, with its tentacles stretching toward the street, and a photo dated 2 February 2011 shows a snow octopus in the church’s East Yard. Source Source Checked

The next day the EV Grieve blog wrote, passing on a reader’s note, that it was the work of Joey Schaefer. Source Reported

Seen Feb 2011: the newest dated evidence is a photograph dated 2 February 2011 on its Commons page. As a snow sculpture it has long since melted, but no source records when. Source Reported

💡 4 things to know

  1. Made from the churchyard’s own snowDNAinfo says an unnamed “inventive snow molder” used the snow covering the church grounds to build the octopus. Source Checked
  2. Tentacles toward the streetThe octopus was laid out with its tentacles stretching toward the street, according to DNAinfo. Source Checked
  3. A reported makerEV Grieve wrote, passing on a reader’s note, that the giant octopus was the work of Joey Schaefer. No other source we found names him. Source Reported
  4. A photo days laterA Wikimedia Commons photo dated 2 February 2011, four days after the first report, shows a snow octopus in the church’s East Yard, apparently the same sculpture. Source Reported

📍 Where it is

East Yard of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, Second Avenue, East Village, Manhattan. Source Source Checked As a snow sculpture, it has long since melted. Reported

Open in Maps

Opens a map at 40.730087, -73.986614, the coordinates on the Commons photo; Street View cannot show a snow sculpture from 2011.

🗓️ Sightings

  1. 201129 Jan

    Reported · DNAinfo

  2. 201130 Jan

    Maker named via a reader · EV Grieve

  3. 20112 Feb

    Photographed in the East Yard · Commons date

Green stamps mark dated photographs (the date given on the photo’s page); amber stamps mark reports. Publication dates are not photo dates.

🗞️ In the sources

DNAinfo29 January 2011

East Village Snow Octopus Latest of Many Storm Creations

“an inventive snow molder recently used the white stuff covering the church’s grounds to build a snow-octopus”

Read the source →

EV Grieve30 January 2011

The tentacles at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery

“this is the work of Joey Schaefer”

Read the source →

✅ The facts

Subject
An octopus, sculpted from snow Source Source Checked
Material
Snow from the church grounds Source Checked
Maker
Joey Schaefer, according to EV Grieve, passing on a reader’s note Source Reported
Place
Grounds of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery on Second Avenue; the East Yard, per the photo’s description Source Source Checked
Neighborhood
East Village, Manhattan, New York City Source Source Checked
First reported
29 January 2011 (DNAinfo) Source Checked
Latest photo found
2 February 2011 (date on the Wikimedia Commons photo page) Source Checked
Melted
No source records when it melted Unconfirmed

🔗 Related

All sources & image credits

Last checked: 11 November 2026 · How we verify art