in this 3D rendering of The Shoveler, a life-size push puppet made of wood, rope, metal, and an electric motor, the figure props one foot on the base of a pyramidal pile of white snowballs. The other foot is planted on top of the gray plinth that elevates the entire sculpture. Wearing a chartreuse shirt, brown pants, and matching purple mittens and hat, the figure inserts his shovel into the snowball pile, just above his foot. A light gray and white grid of small squares, like the "transparent" grid in Adobe software, fills the background.

This photograph features a sculpture called The Shoveler. One life-size wooden figure pushes a snow shovel into a pyramid of 300 snowballs. The paint on the figure suggests it has light almond-colored skin and wears a baby blue shirt, brown paints, pink beanie, and red mittens. The figure is elevated three feet up on a wooden platform painted light gray to resemble stone or concrete. In the background, a gray sky peaks through breaks in the glass-and-concrete skyline.

Alexander Calder's 1969 sculpture Le Grande Vitesse consumes the foreground in this photograph. The snow-shoveling push puppet sculpture rests on its plinth slightly behind and below a tall arch in the abstract sculpture, which is made of thick steel sheets bolted and welded together and painted fire engine red.

in this photograph, only a portion of Calder's red sculpture is visible. Although slightly out of focus, a thick welding line and black scuff marks are discernible. This portion of the massive sculpture leans in from the right of the frame, occupying half the image. Matching the angle of that lean, the push puppet figure bends towards its pyramid of snowballs. The focus on the push puppet is crisp.

in this front-view photograph of The Shoveler, you can see that the snowball pyramid dangles over the edges of the 3-foot tall, 3-foot wide, gray plinth. In the background of this image is the edge of the plaza, which transitions into a ledge, a strip of grass, and then a different public artwork. This one is pyramidal (similar to the snowball pile) but shallower, dull metal and segmented into at least two pieces. Titled Justice, the work was created by Joseph Kinnebrew in 1978. The sculpture was commissioned by friends of Grand Rapids attorney Richard L. Spindle after his death.

this photograph shows the back side of the push puppet sculpture. Its right foot (in a dark brown shoe) pushes into the white snowball pyramid. The two sausage-like segments that make up the right leg meet at a 120-degree angle. In the photograph, one can perceive a slight chromatic aberration, especially around the snowballs and beanie pom pom. This exists because the camera transitioned too quickly from the warm insides of the UHaul van to the 30-degree outsides of Calder Plaza and the lens fogged.

in this photograph, which shows the entire plinth and figure from behind, the red mittens of The Shoveler nearly disappear into the red of Calder's Le Grande Vitesse. The rest of the life-size push puppet sculpture on a gray plinth, however, stands out from both the bright red mass of abstraction and the drab, concrete plaza, seen here in the middle of winter.