Narberth artist Emily Stewart is making ‘ephemeral’ public art out of snow
Though her snow sculptures began as a low-stakes artistic outlet, Stewart says they’ve become a point of connection among her Lower Merion and Narberth neighbors.
After the biggest snowstorm in a decade dumped more than nine inches of snow on Greater Philadelphia, Narberth artist Emily Stewart woke up to a blank canvas.
With her front yard dusted in snow, Stewart zipped up her coat, laced up her boots, and braved the cold to build three Swedish lanterns out of snow and ice. Set against the darkness of winter, the lanterns have offered a glimmer of warmth during the coldest days of a historically frigid period in and around Philly.
Stewart is a Main Line-based artist and community organizer who works with ink, graphite, wood, and, yes, snow. She’s a lover of art and community building, passions that arose from her time in art school and serving in the Peace Corps. She’s also the coordinator of Narberth Public Art, a community group that brings public art displays to downtown Narberth.
An Ohioan by birth, the snow doesn’t bother Stewart. In fact, she prefers a long, snowy winter to the Philly area’s increasingly hot summers.
“I love, love winter,” Stewart said, adding that she has the “opposite of seasonal depression disorder.”
Stewart grew up making snow sculptures in her hometown of Cleveland. In 2021, as pandemic measures kept Stewart and her family cooped up in their home, she picked up her kitchen spatula and began sculpting snow once again. She built life-size bears, an owl, a giant horse, and an eagle (go Birds). Neighbors began stopping by to ask about the sculptures, and people from outside of Narberth even started paying visits to Stewart’s yard after hearing about her art through the grapevine.
Though her snow sculptures began as a low-stakes artistic outlet, Stewart says they’ve become something deeper — a point of connection among neighbors in increasingly polarized and technologically dominated times. Public art provides a “cool little communal social interaction” that “detracts from all the negativity in the world,” she said.
There’s much that Stewart loves about working with snow. It’s free, abundant, and surprising.
When asked about the fleeting nature of her snow works, Stewart said it’s part of the beauty. Snow is temporary, as is everything.
“It’s ephemeral,” she said. “Like, enjoy it, and it’s not yours to keep.”
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