FORT KENT – Albert Deveau was back at his work of art Friday morning, the third day in his endeavor to chip away at a 12- by-12-foot block of artificial snow and create a sculpture for the Biathlon World Cup.

Deveau, 59, of Edmundston, New Brunswick, is creating his 11-foot-tall artwork on Main Street, just in front of a huge tent erected for spectators of the international event.

By the time the Canadian gets done with his work, he will have carved a female biathlete on the right side of the cube, a male biathlete on the left side, the competition’s mascot, the Voyageur, on the front, and a replica of Fort Kent’s Blockhouse on top. The corners of the huge block have pine and spruce trees and branches.

The blockhouse was made separately and lifted onto the block of snow.

“It’s kind of a family project,” he said Friday morning just before taking his tools out of his van. “People stop by and talk, and the kids have all kinds of questions about what I am doing.

“The original plan was different than what is developing, and that’s because of the weather,” he said. “This warm weather would have destroyed the technical figures they originally wanted.”

The original idea was to create several biathletes in different forms as they ski and shoot along the trails. It would have demanded fine detailing that would have melted quickly, he explained.

The block is made of artificial snow. Real snow would have melted too easily, Deveau said. The snow was made elsewhere, trucked in, and a large snowblower was utilized to fill in the huge plywood box that was erected on the site a week ago.

The pile of snow was hard to the touch Friday morning. It had been a cool night Thursday. During the day this week, temperatures have been as high as 35 and 40 degrees.

Deveau said he used a chain saw and a shovel to make the original rough cuts into the block. The detail work is done with chisels and a well-sharpened cement trowel, and the final stage will bring out the sandpaper.

It was early when the sculptor started Friday, and there were no spectators on the streets yet. Most cars and buses coming through town were headed for the competition venue.

A sculptor since 1976, Deveau started his craft because he needed “something different outside our home. I used a 25-foot log which I carved with a chain saw.”

In the past 28 years, Deveau has created an untold number of sculptures. He makes one each year for the Foire Brayonne Festival at Edmundston, an annual weeklong festival celebrating the city’s early settlers, and has made several for Madawaska’s Acadian Festival celebrating its founding settlers.

He also has done some outdoor carvings at Quebec City for its famed annual Winter Carnival.

In the last several days, journalists from all over the world have stopped to talk about his craft and the piece he was doing in Fort Kent.

“I tell them I am taking my time, and doing the best I can,” he said of the media inquiries. “At many times, there is a lot of trial and error in doing this.

“It’s well-frozen this morning,” he said of the sculpture. “It will be nice to work this morning.”

Among his admirers have been some of the biathletes. Deveau signed the sweat shirt of a junior biathlete who wanted his autograph Thursday.

“He just pulled his shirt out of his pants and asked me to sign with a felt tip pen,” Deveau said.