Dominique

LailaAt the age of 18, Dominique Colell began her ice carving career in the back yard of her parents’ house while preparing for the 1999 Miss Ventura County contest in the Miss America Organization. During the pageant she took home the crown and became the first and only pageant title holder to have used ice carving as a talent. On the way to Miss California, her Musician father and future ice carving partner Bruce, found the world famous Master Carver Gustave Stempke to train her for her 2 minute talent of ice carving. After winning her title and carving in her trademark crown and gown, Dominique was quickly dubbed “The Ice Queen” while being featured on “Inside Edition”. Along her icy journey Dominique attained her BA in Studio Art from Oklahoma State University in only 3 years , an MAEd in K-8 Education, competed in 12 ice sculpture competitions including 9 International World Championships, started the southern California based ice carving business Images In Ice, became the first female performing ice sculptures in the world carving for a variety of audiences including opening for “Hootie and the Blowfish” and “Chris LeDoux”, performing for Microsoft, Intuit, a 20 day stint and the World Famous San Diego Zoo and many more. In 2006 Dominique started an all-female ice carving group called “The Chainsaw Chicks” that has performed nationally, most recently at the Ronald Reagan Library. In 2009 and 2010 Dominique was one of the ice sculptors featured on the TLC shows “Chainsaw Ice Sculptors” and “Chainsaw Ice Sculptors: Challenge Alaska”. In 2011, Dominique became part of World Record Ice, a five member team that set 2 Guinness Book World Records, astounding audiences with her (icy cold) cutting edge skills for 23 days at the Orange County Fair’s Ice Museum and will be setting and holding an additional Guinness Book World Record by herself.