In his studio in New York’s Long Island City in Queens, sculptor Shintaro Okamoto and his team of artisans create massive, detailed sculptures for the rich and famous, as well as for everyone else.
Okamoto was born in Fukuoka, Japan, but his family moved to Alaska when he was 9 years old. It was his father who discovered sculpting in ice first. (If you’re going to sculpt in ice in the United States, Alaska is the place.)
“I have to say, not all Alaskans play with ice, but I did,” Okamoto told The Epoch Times.
Right from the beginning, Okamoto had artistic tendencies that were encouraged by his father, who owned and ran a Japanese restaurant in Anchorage. As a child, Okamoto found himself drawing and painting all the wildlife around him, which he just loved.
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