photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Craig Cochran is pictured with his Intergalactic DJ in the 300 block of Elm Street on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024.

While severe weather advisories earlier this month had most of us stocking up on groceries and hunkering down indoors, a North Lawrence artist was eager to be outside doing one of his favorite things: creating an enormous ice sculpture in his front yard.

For Craig Cochran, the sculpting is a yearly project, depending on the weather, which has to be just right — and this year it was perfect: a heavy, wet snowfall, good for building and shaping, followed by days of subzero freeze, good for hardening and preserving.

The result of his 55 hours of labor is a 10-foot tall “Intergalactic DJ” who cradles a glittery disco ball and spins records as passing motorists in the 300 block of Elm Street slow down and do a double take.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Craig Cochran is pictured with his Intergalactic DJ in the 300 block of Elm Street on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024.

photo by: Kim callahan/Journal-World

Craig Cochran’s Intergalactic DJ in the 300 block of Elm Street includes a glitter-paint disco ball.

Before Cochran added the final touches, people might have taken the giant seated creature for a Buddha or maybe an elf or Hindu deity, but by Saturday some accessories — space-age antennae, turntables, lit-up eyes in changing colors — made the icy entertainer’s identity crystal clear.

“I was not leaning toward the spiritual realm,” Cochran said, despite the creature’s serene pose. In fact, the sculpture — supported by a plywood frame that Cochran made — started out as a gnome, “but then the snow spoke to me.”

Cochran, who has been a DJ for nearly 30 years, saw the opportunity — as he gathered nearly all of the snow out of his yard and his neighbor’s yard too — for something a little more personal this year. Past creations have included a Buddha, a gargoyle, an eagle, a dragon and even a Trojan horse, among others — “whatever the snow told me to do.”

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The face of Craig Cochran’s Intergalactic DJ in the 300 block of Elm Street features lit-up eyes that can change colors.

“This is one of my favorites, though,” he said, perhaps because, in its interstellar, mystical way, it’s kind of an amalgam of all his previous creations, in addition to referencing his love of spinning tunes.

As temperatures rise, the DJ’s eternal smile might begin to sag a bit, but Cochran doesn’t expect that to happen soon, given the size and thickness of the icy block.

“I had one last until May,” he said, adding that it wasn’t exactly pretty at the end, but it had beaten the odds.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Craig Cochran’s Intergalactic DJ in the 300 block of Elm Street before he accessorized it.