I’m always impressed with how generous artists can be.
We saw that evidence in Totoro Forest Auction a few years back.  Now, this one also got many renowned artists showed their beautiful souls!

There are some amazing art created for this show and you better look into it if you are art collectors.
Lots of them are still at VERY reasonable prices.  I know I’m going to try to bid on a few!
This charity auction is up only until the end of the week.(3/13)

—-About This Auction—-
As an extension of the documentary BROWNSTONES TO RED DIRT, Copper Pot Pictures has paired with Schools for Salone to hold an online art auction to benefit kids in need in Sierra Leone and New York.   The auction includes over 150 pieces created by some of the top names in animation as well as children’s book, graphic novel and comic illustration, including some amazing talents such as Jeremy Gedds, Shaun Tan, and Olivier Tossan!

Each artist was given a blank birchwood postcard and asked to create a unique work based on the theme, “PEN PALS.”  All proceeds will be used to build a school for war orphans in Freetown, Sierra Leone and to develop a library for at-risk youth in Brooklyn.  Winning bids will be tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.  Please visit our blog to see all of the cards: http://btorpostcards.blogspot.com/

To learn more about the schools and see clips of the kids from the film, please visit: http://brownstonestoreddirt.com/

So this is not an update about Totoro Forest book second edition(sorry!!) but I donated my own personal copy to my friend, Rachel Tiep-Daniels’ Haiti Earthquake fund raising event that’s happening tonight in NY.  If you donate your money on line, you get the raffle tickets to possibly win iPad, or Totoro Forest Book that Enrico, Ronnie and I signed.  The book one time went for $900 on ebay so hopefully that’ll make you wanna donate some to help kids in Haiti.

They close the fund raising at 10 pm EASTERN TIME.  Hope we can all make a little difference to make a big one!

Go there to find more about this fund raiser event!  >>http://www.picturebookprojectfoundation.blogspot.com/

It’s a bit of a sad news to most of you who have been diligently coming back to our site asking for the book.

The publisher we have been talking to about the second edition of Totoro Forest Project has decided to back out of the deal.

They were very enthusiastic about it but there still has been a bit of a gap with what kind of book the publisher wanted to make as opposed to what we wanted.  We mainly needed to keep the quality in the decent level, if not the same as the first self published version.  It involved so many talented people’s hard work without a pay and it deserved to be crafted with care. 

So we apologize to inform you guys this news.  So those who made a pre-order on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com, this book won’t come out of that publisher.

There are a few publishers interested in making it happen.  I’m supposed to meet with one of them this coming week.

Let’s see if they happen to share the philosophy of this project with us more closely!

It’s a long endeavour.   And contrary to everyone’s wishes, maybe Totoro Forest God wants this to be only one time deal… who knows?

Tthe book is going for $800 on Ebay currently.  So hey, someone is making something out of it!  :)

We will keep you posted.

Hello everyone,

We sincerely apologize for not giving any update on this project for many months.

After the immense success at the auction and the Cartoon Art Museum, we, Totoro Forest Project Committee respectively went back to our own normal lives.  However, there has been no moments where we forgot about this project or about the forest!

It is our intention to print more TFP books to share the experience of this special event with all of you who believe in what we believe in.  But it has not been easy due to many aspects of this non profit theme.   We have been talking to a publisher(and it’s a good, respected one) but things have not been going as smooth and fast as we were hoping.

Anyhow, we were hoping to give you clear information on this matter but we are still waiting to see what happens.

We would like to thank all of you out there who expressed your interests in purchasing this special book.

Please keep your eye on this blog for further notices.

Sincerely

Totoro Forest Committee

Here is one of my favorite videos created by Jeremy McCracken based on Veronique Joffre’s superb illustration!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Are you one of those wondering where all that crazy amount of money we raised with this project?
I hope you do!  Because it is the money you all helped raise!

One of the Totoro Project committee, Yukino went to attend this big 10th year anniversary of Totoro Forest Foundation in Japan back in last November.

And there did she present…

$185,221 to the foundation!

This is basically how much we allocated in our first installment to the foundation. (we are still waiting for the right timing to transfer the money since US dollar is so weak these days!)
There is obviously more with some small amount the books made and other donations.  That’ll come in the second installment.

This is the total amount we raised from the artwork plus ticket sales minus the event expenses and the fee for Give2Asia(non profit that legally transfers our fund to Japan).

Quick run down of the expense

framing/exhibition walls/t-shirts/post cards/banner/misc auction materials  $6264.62
Food/Catering   $11,000.00
Beverages (wine/beer/sake/tea/soft drinks)  $2,780.00
Chairs/Glass/Linen rental Classic Party Rentals  $5,531.34

This is less than 15% of the entire fund we raised which is, according to Give2Asia(non profit that oversaw this project), one of the most efficient fund raising events they have ever seen!
They said even professional fund raising events can’t be this efficient.  Wow!  All the hard work everyone put into paid off!

Even A BIGGER NEWS!

We GOT FOREST!

The Totoro No Furusato Fund sent us with these photos(attached)!
Yes!  They bought 2 sections of Totoro Forest with the very money we donated!  YAAAAAAAAY!   It is OUR forest!  Well… sorry.. we can’t claim the ownership obviously…..it is everyone’s forest that we helped buy! 

These are pretty small forests(50 meters x 50 meters each……sigh…., real estate is expensive in Japan….)  but they said these are some of the key sections in the forest they have been eying on.  This will prevent some serious illegal dumping etc…

Yes.  We made a difference.  All of you, artists, donors, fans, bloggers, who supported this project in your own ways!

And they assured that there will be some signs to indicate Totoro Forest Project auction on the site.

Wouldn’t that be neat?

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Sorry…

this post is getting long….

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Just a few more things you might want to know

*We still receive tons and tons of inquiries about the second printing of the book.  We are currently waiting to hear from the publisher who expressed interest.  There are a few other possibilities and we are trying to get what makes most sense for the purpose of this project.   It is really nice to know that so many many many people are wanting this book.  I will say this honestly that we probably have 50/50 chance of reprinting this book.

*Now the first exhibition at Cartoon Art Museum is down, there is only one more month left for you to witness the original art of this extraordinary event.  Please don’t miss the show at the Cartoon Art in San Francisco!  They also is having a spectacular the Art of Coraline exhibit!(see one of Totoro artists, Tadahiro Uesugi’s first animation concept work!)

I had a chance to visit Cartoon Art Museum this weekend and OH MY GOD, the second half of the show looks fantastic!  Now, all 184 pieces of artwork from the Art of Totoro Foest Project book are exhibited together, you can really appreciate the magnitude of this event.
The first half of the show ends on January 18th and the second show will come down mid February.  It is absolutely best to see when both shows are up.  Don’t miss your opportunity!

And come join us at the reception!

Location:  Cartoon Art Museum
655 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 US (between Second Street and Third Street)
View Map  |

When:  Tuesday, December 16, 7:00PM ~ 9:00PM

And yes.  We will sell 20 Totoro books during the reception.  You heard it right.  Only twenty left.

Look at the beautiful presentation Andrew Farrago, the curator of Cartoon Art Museum did!

The second space which is is quite spacious and the show wraps around the back as well!  Wow wow!

You missed the auction in September?

You want to meet some of the artists who contributed to this incredible event?

Come celebrate with us at the opening reception  of the Totoro Forest Project exhibit next Tuesday the 16th!
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Location:  Cartoon Art Museum
655 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 US (between Second Street and Third Street)
View Map  |

When:  Tuesday, December 16, 7:00PM ~

It is absolutely FREE!!(there will be a donation box if you would like to contribute!)

Everyone’s invited!

Phone:  415-CAR-TOON

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As promised, there will be 20 Totoro Forest Project books available for purchase.  It will be the final occasion to be able to purchase.  Don’t miss your last opportunity!

Hello everyone.  Sorry for not posting anything for a while.

We are still receiving lots and lots of emails asking for the book.

We ARE currently having conversations with a publisher about the second printing.  There are a few obstacles to overcome so it is at this point 50 – 50.  As soon as we have an official word, we will make an announcement ASAP.

We have about 40 books left.  That’s it really.

As I promised, we will sell these at the special occasions one of which is this lecture Ronnie, Enrico and myself are giving Saturday December 6th in San Fransisco.   We will talk about Totoro Project as well as animation preproduction process etc.  Hope to see you there!

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Asian Art Members Lecture

The Totoro Forest Project

Saturday, December 6, 2008

1pm Samsung Hall

Open to the Public. Seating limited; first come, first served.

Dice Tsutsumi, Enrico Casarosa, and Ronnie del Carmen from Pixar Studios share their artwork and artistry. The discussion features the artists’ latest works from the special exhibition and benefit for the Totoro Forest Project.

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Hello everyone~!

We are pleased to announce OOP Press is making an appearance at Alternative Press Expo San Francisco this coming weekend!  OOP Press is our proud indy publisher of Art of Totoro Forest Project book.  We are looking to unload about 100 copies Saturday and Sunday. (probably 50 copies each day)

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Here is the info

Alternative Press Expo San Francisco

SATURDAY
November 1
11:00am-7:00pm

SUNDAY
November 2
11:00am-6:00pm

The Concourse
620 7th Street
San Francisco

The table # is 315 and 316.(we share the table from Scott Morse so our name is not listed)

Hope you can find us!

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There you will also see Enrico’s new book Venice Chronicle which will come with a special original drawing!

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Our proud publisher OOP Press is selling their Out of Picture comics as well as Art of Totoro Forest Project!

Hi everyone!

So we started to hear lots of people finally receiving the Totoro book package.  We don’t know why it is taking so long to reach all these people.   All I can say is that shipping international is VERY unreliable..  I hope hope those who ordered the book will get the actual book pretty soon.

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Meanwhile, I’d like to introduce another artist community project that has become a worldwide phenomena.

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It is called Sketchcrawl!

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This is an incredible bi-monthly event created by one of our own Totoro committee members Enrico Casarosa! Basically, people get together on the same day in their respective cities and crawl around the city with their sketch pads.  Very simple.  Enrico has been doing this for years now and now it has attracted hundreds of devotees all around the world.  I think the last sketchcrawl was organized more than 60 cities in 30 or so countries including various cities in the U.S., Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Serbia, Australia, Russia, Brazil, UK, Sweden…and the list goes on!

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Anyone can participate.  No experience necessary.  Just get together with fellow artists in your city and enjoy sketching all day, get to know new artists/art lover friends.  And if you want, you can share your sketches with thousands of other crawlers on the Sketchcrawl Forum!

As you can see, it’s simple but quite a brilliant idea!

Now you want to participate huh?

How about this Saturday 10/25?  There will be Worldwide 20th Sketchcrawl!   You don’t know if your city has one?  Go to this web page and find out! Maybe there’s one already or you can start one!

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Ps.  Let me go on and introduce my buddy Enrico a bit more.  This guy is an incredible artist with incredible ideas.  What he did with Sketchcrawil was quite something as you can guess.  While he’s one of the top story artists at Pixar, he continues to impress the world with his comics and other personal projects.  His new book Venice Chronicle is no different.  It is his visual diary when he took a trip to Italy beauuuutifully illustrating his love endovor!

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I know lots of you couldn’t get Totoro book.  Don’t wait too long on this either.  This could be another independent publication only available for a limited amount of time!