Courtesy of Shintaro Okamoto

"Ice is its most powerful when it's doomed to melt," says founder and Creative Director of Okamoto Studio, Shintaro Okamoto.

Amid the sound of a drill penetrating a block of ice in the studio's warehouse in Long Island City, Okamoto describes the passion, danger and frailty of ice's expiration date.

"There's a sadness when it's gone, but there's a sense of happiness that it was there," Okamoto says.

According to Okamoto, the finite life span of ice art seems to heighten the awareness that the infatuation is doomed the moment the temperature rises above zero, seemingly causing the viewer to admire the beauty of the ice sculpture as it exists in its physical form.

"The live material [ice] is dramatic," Okamoto claims, "it disappears and it's for one time only, but it's much more present."

In an ideal romance, an encounter could potentially last a lifetime. But in the cold world, an ice block that usually takes 3 to 4 days to reach completion can take 6 to 8 hours to melt.

But before taking on an ice project, according to Okamoto, he looks for "ambition" and aims to "appreciate the concept" by working with the client to figure out their intent.  Once the preliminary meetings are complete, the ice goes under a series of preparations from the ice being allocated to wrapped in insulated deep freeze bags.

The studio uses 40 lbs of municipal water, patience and skill to carve blocks of ice that weigh 300 lbs each and takes hours to weeks to finalize, with up to 10 workers aiding in the completion of the project(s) during a busy season.

Pricing starts at $500 for a single block of ice and every precaution is taken to prevent the sculptures premature demise, says Okamoto.  "There's a sense of danger in something [ice] that can break and fall...but we are very aware," he adds.

Okamoto Studio opened its doors in 2003 and has since appeared on the Travel channel and worked with Tribeca based Japanese restaurant Megu, the Iron Chef program and Truth Campaign, and various special events like the Rockefeller Center lighting.

The Okamoto Studio consists of father and son duo, Takeo Okamoto (master sculptor) and Shintaro Okamoto who received a B.A. in Visual Art at Brown University and a M.F.A. in Painting at Hunter College.

The typical tools used to carve an ice sculpture is a chainsaw, drill and a few inventive tools to make innovative art that, according to Okamoto, is often under-investigated.

Yet high-end venues and well known artists seek out Okamoto Studio for events and logo branding seemingly in an attempt to capture the frailty of ice art--a delicateness that Okamoto admires.

"I want ice to be ice," Okamoto says. But at some point when it's gone, he claims, "it's like surrendering enjoyment."