Roseville artist builds 5-foot Detroit Lion with snow to celebrate team's playoff success

Edward Stross, an artist and self-proclaimed lifelong Lions fan, always wanted to use his talents to honor his team.

So, when they finally started winning — and this winter when it finally started snowing — he said he decided to sculpt something big, just outside his Roseville studio, out of the white fluff, to express the pride he felt.

Over a few days last week, he said he endured the freezing temperatures to pack the freshly fallen snow into a mound and shape it into a 5- to 6-foot-tall lion. Then he sprayed it with food coloring — just the right shade, he said, of Honolulu Blue.

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Stross was born in Ohio, but he became a Michigander when his family moved here when he was just a boy. He grew up loving all the Detroit teams: the Tigers, Pistons, Red Wings — and Lions.

He went to school to learn how to repair and paint cars, pulling out dents and sculpting them back to the works of art they were when they rolled off the assembly lines; and then he used those skills to create his own art.

He now runs the Gonzo Art Studios. Over the years, he said, the Tigers, Pistons, and Red Wings won championships, and he has held on to hope, like the rest of the city, that his Lions would, too.

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Last week, as he toiled in the bitter cold, he said he didn’t feel it because his "creative mind was at work." On top of that, he added, the encouragement he got from people who saw what he was making and loved, warmed him up.

"I think," the 62-year-old said of his team’s march to the Super Bowl, "it’s the most wonderful thing for metro Detroit. And that’s the silver lining of not winning for so long. It is now bringing people together because people love a winner."

He said that one sign of respect for the team — and his art — is the fact that even though the lion is out in the open and made of snow, no one has tried to damage it.

Still, as the temperature warms and the snow lion he made slowly melts, Stross said he intends — if there is more snowfall soon — to build another, bigger lion — a super one, if you will, for a team that looks like it might finally make it to the Super Bowl.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Roseville artist builds Detroit Lion from snow near Gonzo Art Studios