David Popa Creates Amazing Portraits on Floating Blocks of Ice

American multidisciplinary artist David Popa is definitely no stranger to making large-scale portraits. However, his most recent project called “Floats” was arguably his most demanding and epic undertaking.

In Floats, Popa—who is based in Finland, creates amazing artwork on floating blocks of ice. Going against the harsh Finnish winter, Popa embarked on the search across the Baltic Sea in pursuit of the perfect canvas for his artworks. After finding the right setting and ideal ice floats, he would draw a portrait using charcoal and soil in a can.

The results, although short-lived, were stunning. Despite working in unfriendly conditions, the artist managed to capture an impressive amount of details and complete a piece before the floats fracture more or get taken away by the water. 

“It is a very exciting process that comes with a ton of frustration, as the floats often crack midway through the piece, leaving me to create works in fragmented pieces,” Popa explained in a post on social media.

While his portraits would usually cease to exist after a few hours, Popa made them “immortal” using drones with high-resolution cameras. He later offered some of the artworks as prints and non-fungible tokens while also releasing a documentary about his feat.