Nandasiri with his award. His carving of Canadian legend Terry Fox
Sri Lankan-born Nandasiri Polwattegedera emerged as the best ice carver at the Bloor-Yorkville festival last February for the third time.
The most prestigious ice sculpting event in Ontario held in Toronto every February gave Nandasiri his 41st first place in the province since he started his participation seven years ago.
Hailing from a tropical country where one can see ice only in the deep freezers, Nandasiri has earned a lot of fans by turning ice blocks into art. Out of the total of seven awards at the Yorkville festival, he has won two second places and two third places since 2013.
“The theme for the February ice carving was ‘Eighties,’ and I selected Canadian legend Terry Fox as my subject,” says Nandasiri speaking to newstrails.com.
Terry Fox is a global icon. He was a Canadian athlete whose leg was amputated due to cancer. Fox ran from east to west coast in Canada on one leg to raise money for cancer research. He had to give up his effort as the cancer spread, eventually ending his valiant run after 53,743 km, running 37 km a day, inspiring the worldwide annual ‘marathon of hope’ to raise funds for cancer research. He died on June 28, 1981, at the age of 23.
“Halfway through my sculpture, I knew I would grab the first prize as many people gathered where I was carving and started passing interesting comments on my work,” Nandasiri said, adding that the top prize is awarded on people’s choice.
“The carving had to be completed in three hours, and I think the success was due to my time management. I divided the sculpture into six stages with 30 minutes set aside for each part,” he said.
During the first half an hour, he separated the block into six parts and started sculpting. In the final 30 minutes, he joined the pieces together. The adhesive was water, which froze the moment it was poured into ice at -20 temperature.
“I embellished my carvings from ancient Sri Lankan art. This time I copied the liyawals – stylized wooden flower carvings – from Ambakke shrine in Kandy. People here don’t know the background of those designs, but it gives my creations an exotic touch,” adds Nandasiri saying that other carvers only add lines and circles to decorate their works.
Eleven other competitors in Canada took part in the Yorkville festival. Nandasiri says he is the only man of colour engaged in ice carving in Ontario competitions. As he exhibits the Sri Lankan flag along with his sculptures, people know from where he comes from.
In January, Wonderland, a premier amusement park close to Toronto, invited him to do live ice carvings, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project got postponed.
Nandasiri introduced live ice carving shows for the first time in Ontario and planned four events before a live audience in senior homes managed by the Delmanor group.
“I could do only two shows due to the pandemic. There were about 150 people for an event. I did not go into pre-planning. I asked the audience what they wanted me to do. At one show, the audience asked me to carve a maple leaf, and during the second one, I did a carving of a fish on request.”
Nandasiri is also a good painter efficient in handling oil paint, watercolours, acrylic, screen printing and volunteered for six months last year in a downtown community centre teaching painting to a multi-ethnic crowd.
He is a founding member of the Arts and Artisans Development Network in Toronto, a non-profit organization providing support and opportunities for the economic and social development of artists and artisans from immigrant, newcomer and visible minority groups through events and enterprises of arts, crafts and performing arts.
Nandasiri owned a successful graphic arts firm in Sri Lanka before migrating to Canada. Rusiru Arts and Advertising Services Private Limited was dealing in TV, radio and newspaper advertising.
He is also one of the pioneers to popularize silk screen printing in Sri Lanka. “This was introduced to the island by Thomas Tillekeratne. I pioneered an innovation which I learnt in India during a trip in 2003. I started making mega posters by joining four single pages. It was never done in the country before,” he said.
Another area he excelled in was painting film cut-outs. “Former actor Prem Jayanth pioneered this art form after he retired from films. It became much sought-after by film producers and theatre owners. There were many artists involved in painting cut-outs. Some of the names I can remember are Sarath Yatawara, Edwin Batawala and Sunil Nishantha. It was a powerful advertising tool during the heyday of the Sinhala cinema.”
Nandasiri was also involved in designing sets and costumes for Sinhala stage plays. “I worked with famous stage personalities like Simon Nawagaththegama for his production of Lokoththara, Iranganie Kalutantrige’s Dutu Gemunu and Asoka Senarath Mudalige’s Sarada Yamlo Pathi among many others.”
Nandasiri’s other passions are writing lyrics and singing. “I have written lyrics for 20 songs and recorded a song. It is available on Youtube, and it is being played regularly over FM transmissions in Sri Lanka. Shalika Ishan sang one of his songs titled Amma (Mother).
Nandasiri plans to launch a Youtube channel soon to demonstrate fruit, butter, vegetable and chocolate carving in addition to painting.
His two children follow in his footsteps. Son Rusiri is doing his MA in global marketing and digital art with special emphasis on animation at Waterloo University while daughter, Irumi Omala, studies fashion design at George Brown College. – newstrails.com
