SAUGUS – While most of New England spent the weekend digging out, one Saugus resident decided to pay homage to the storm and a beloved Disney character: Nemo.?It was kind of a no-brainer with the storm, and the storm name and everything,” said Sean Fitzpatrick of his nearly 10-foot tall “Finding Nemo” snow sculpture. “I guess I could have done Captain Nemo, but I?m not sure a lot of the people would have recognized who it was, so I went with the fish.”The sculpture, which sits on the front lawn of Fitzpatrick?s Adams Avenue home in Saugus, took about seven hours to make.?It was all pretty much done with hand tools,” said Fitzpatrick.Fitzpatrick said he compacted the snow into two, three-foot by six-foot by two-foot forms, like he does with his sand sculptures, to make one giant block of snow. From there he came up with the design and began sculpting.?It?s like a cake pan with no top or bottom,” he said. “I fill the first one then stack the next one on top of that. I had a five-foot base to work off of so it ended up being, like, nine feet tall.”While Nemo wasn?t the actual name of this weekend?s storm, it became its unofficial moniker after The Weather Channel decided last year that it would name winter storms.As rain fell steadily on Monday, Fitzpatrick said the weather hasn?t done much damage to the sculpture.?It?s still there,” he said. “It?ll be OK until the end of the day or (Tuesday). It hasn?t really changed at all. It?s not heavy rain.”Fitzpatrick has been in the sculpting business for 13 years. While working as an auto mechanic, he started Fitzy Snowman Sculptures in 2000 and went full-time in 2006.?It?s like a performance-type art,” he said. “I do a lot of shows for mountain resorts in the winter and marketing companies. I do sand, snow, ice, pumpkins and I also do 3D chalk art.”Fitzpatrick has also done work for professional sports teams like the New York Jets and Boston Red Sox.Fitzpatrick said lawn sculptures used to be a regular feature at his home but work has been so busy since he went full-time, Fitzpatrick said, it?s been a while since he made one for the neighborhood.?The neighbors get a kick out of it,” he said. “They haven?t seen one in a while.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].
