After a 3 year program at the Kootenay School of the Arts, I graduated in 1976 with a diploma in Sculpture and Printmaking. After a 12 year stint of running my own sign business in Fort St John, I ended up in the Kootenays. I developed an interest in snow sculpting, winning the Canadian Championships a number of times which led to representing Canada at the Nagano Olympics in 1998 and the Torino Olympics in 2006 (where our team won First Prize and Peoples choice. In 2003 i got into sand sculpting and have won 2 World championships in Doubles and Teams. Sand sculpting enabled me to make a full time living from my sculpture, traveling the world to various projects and contests. In 2009 I was commissioned by the City of Fort St John to create a life sized bronze statue with 2 figures to be placed in front of their new arena. The advent of the Castlegar Sculpture Walk encouraged me to continue making permanent works. In the past 10 years, I have created concrete sculptures, bronze, granite, welded steel and mosaic pieces. I am pleased to say that I have had a number of sales, and my pieces were winners of the Castlegar Sculpture Walk these past 2 years, subsequently purchased by the City.
Peter Vogelaar
