Deputy Arts Editor Rory Collins and Staff Writer Tara Lago met with the viral artist behind the Columbia “Snow Bunny” stickers.

On a random Tuesday in February, Columbia was swept by a storm and a flurry of artists making snowmen… and more specifically, a bunny. The next morning, Columbia had a new student in town: a human-sized bunny sitting on a bench in College Walk, scarf wrapped around its shoulders and a Joe coffee in hand (in preparation for their 8:40 am class). As the days went on, people added more accessories to the new snow friend: a rose and a chocolate box to celebrate Valentine’s Day, a red envelope for the Lunar New Year, and more. While the Barnumbia community supported Snowbunny during their time on campus, our featured artist Madison took it a step further and began commemorating the presence of this bunny through digital art. She sketched out a cute little graphic of it and posted her Snowbunny portrait on Sidechat, where an unexpected wave of people began to clamor for more Snowbunny content. 

Flash forward to March, when we chatted with Madison at the peak of her Snowbunny art commissions. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the Lerner piano lounge, Madison enlightened us about the Snowbunny story, her work, and the next steps in her creative process.

We were surprised to learn that no one knew who the original snowmaker was. Madison did not build Snowbunny personally but was inspired to draw it. In our interview, she remarked, “This Snowbunny thing was kind of just like a little doodle I did. I was like that thing looks easy to draw or looks fun to draw so I’m just going to draw it. And then when I was done, I was like, guess I’ll post it on Sidechat.”

Her cute doodle on Sidechat incited a snowball effect across other social media platforms. Students were posting the image on Instagram and Twitter, and sending it around campus through text. In just a few hours, Madison’s art had gone viral and was known by almost every member of the Barnumbia community.

However, like many viral artworks on the internet, Madison’s name was not attached to her art, and it was completely anonymous due to its inception on Sidechat, an anonymous social media platform for Columbia students. But she didn’t mind. “I was okay with my name not being attached,” she told us, “coming from a high school that had no school spirit whatsoever I was like wait… something that actually kinda brings people together is so good, so I didn’t really care that my name wasn’t on it.”

The Snowbunny became so popular that stickers of the drawing began popping up around campus. Laptops, phone cases… students repped the Snowbunny more than Roaree the Lion. When we asked about how the sticker aspect of her art took off, Madison told us she did not initially think about making prints of her art. She said, “At first, I was like, let me just post this picture and then that’ll be it. The first day I posted the picture I got 20 DMs: are you going to make prints of this? I was like, not really. But a few days later, I was like—why not? Give the people what they want.” 

She ordered around 250 stickers of her art, questioning if that amount would be too much to attempt to sell to the broader community. She was extremely unsure of if people would actually want to buy a sticker from her, or if the people who had liked the drawing online would still be interested. When the stickers came in, she decided to table at Lerner to sell them. On her first day, Madison sold out all her stickers. It was unexpected, a “shot in the dark” because she had never had an audience like this for her art before. 

Now, every time she sees her Snowbunny sticker on students’ computers, she tells us, “It’s kind of nice. I love it. It’s like, I don’t know, it’s nice to have something, that is a common theme that everyone knows, it’s…heartwarming.”

We agreed. Interviewer Rory said, “We don’t know who built it so at least we have you who kind of memorialized it because it has melted by now.”

“Unfortunately,” Madison sighed.

We gave a moment of silence for Snowbunny’s melting. 

When asked about her future plans for the Snowbunny, Madison told us, “This is the end of Snowbunny for me. One of my friends reached out to me and we’re planning a new thing, sort of going off of Snowbunny and the hype I got from it. We’re going to donate the money from our new project to Palestinian aid. I feel like it’s better if I can put this money into something. I’ve always wanted to do something like that, but I didn’t have an audience. But now that I’ve built an audience for it, maybe it can help.”

Madison’s art is a lovely reminder for us of the ways Snowbunny spread cheer during the dark days of February midterms. Her art will certainly continue to bring warmth to our community and beyond, and these two writers are certainly happy to be official owners of new Snowbunny stickers. 

If you’re interested in purchasing a sticker, poster, or postcard, be sure to reach out to @cu_snowbunny on Instagram! 

Snowbunny via Featured Artist