From space, the planet looks mostly white, almost like it's a big snowball flying through the night.

There are several hundred billion comets out there, ranging from near-planet-sized monsters a few hundred kilometers across to snowballs no bigger than your fist.

"It was one big snowball for me," she says.

"If I'm lucky, I'll turn it into a big snowball, frozen minus-20 with ice inside," Eliasson explains.

Its been a rollercoaster of emotions for me....My head is a big snowball.

"Once that big snowball starts to go, it's hard to stop it," Smith said.

But to Mr. Mitchell its themes are just as important, if expressed quite differently: "We're a big, pink snowball," he told his cast in San Francisco.

"It looked like a big snowball coming at me," Giambi said.

Drippy, smeary, semiabstract paintings revolving around childish images like rainbows, a winterscape with big snowballs and flakes, or scrawled words ("rainbow rain").

There was only a big snowball at the edge of the glade.