the Sacred Tree 2

Hoo~ another wave of busyness ! I really need to catch up with the posts ! >_<

Thanks for every wonderful message on the Totoro piece !
Thought I'd give you a little bit of the background of the piece,
if you haven't read the description on the Totoro Forest Project site already..

"the piece was made in memory of the big Cypress tree forest in Ali mountain in Taiwan. Before 1900s, the mountain was full of thousand -year-old Cypress trees. During the 50 years of Japanese colonization if Taiwan, the forest was found, and a railway was built. The majority of the forest was logged and exported. Ali mountain became a big logging source until 1970s. Today, there are only a few big frees left in the area.
The biggest tree found in the mountain was a 3,000 years old Cypress, standing 55 meters high with a circular length of 23 meters, named as the "Sacred Tree". Sadly, It was struck by lightening in the 50s, and was cut down for safety. But it still remains as the god and guardian of the forest today.
I hope this piece could remind people of the history and to not make the same mistake again, and also how precious for the rare nature left on earth today."

the figure of the big sacred tree resembles the spirit of Totoro for me - a guardian of the forest. This piece is also dedicated to people who grew up and lived through the big transition era of Taiwan history in Ali mountain. Especially to my parents who lived through the post WW2 time, and to my mom who lived in one of the major station town on the Ali mountain railway. From her, I heard many stories of Ali mountain.

To learn more about Ali mountain, click . here

For the development of the piece, I also did two character studies that are now in the Paris show.

Some Time Before ...


Some Time After ...