Totoro Statue

I have been a fan of Miyazaki from the opening credits of the first film I saw. It happened to be My Neighbor Totoro which is still among my favorites of his. I think Porco Rosso is my favorite Miyazaki movie but Totoro, Sprited Away and Whispers of the Heart are still among my favorites. When we bought our new house, the owners had a garden in the front courtyard with Buddha statue which they took with them. This area was crying out for a statue to replace it. I wanted to get a stone Miyazaki statue. After much consideration and debate I decided on Totoro who is a tree spirit and in the movie watches out over nature and the kids.

To get this statue made I put an ad in on the website of OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) which is the Toronto arts college. I was looking for a student or a new grad and outlined the project and asked interested parties that thought they had the skill set to do this to contact me and to send me some of images from their portfolio. I got one response but lost the email with a computer crash and had to repost which garnered a second response. Through this I met Olenka, a recent grad who does food sculpture and has an affinity and talent with butter sculptures. We talked and met and although she wasn't familiar with Miyazaki she certainly was interested in Japanese pop culture and some anime/manga. I lent her my copies of the Miyazaki collection and she understood the character.

From there we decided on material, size and pricing. Time frame was more open as I wasn't in a big rush. The process was great and I visited the piece in the works and various stages about a dozen times. Most of the times I went down, the kids were with me so they were part of the process as well. In the end, the project took about 9 months (maybe a bit longer) but it was fun and the final piece is perfect. It is subtle enough that many people miss it coming up to the house and when the ivy finishes growing in around it I think it will be even more at one with the garden and the space. It is a little over 3 and a half feet tall and weighs in at over 400 lbs.

The artist is Olenka Kleban. Here is her site. Here is an article on Olenka working with butter making a parody of our controversial mayor.