Something wasn’t right. Olivia Chow couldn’t exactly place it when she first saw the sculpture of her late husband, Jack Layton, being crafted at the art and design studios of MST Bronze Ltd., a foundry in Etobicoke.

The larger-than-life statue, which will be unveiled in bronze on Thursday — the second anniversary of his death from cancer of the Toronto politician and federal NDP leader — had a strong likeness to Layton. But something was off.

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“It’s difficult to capture someone’s expression, especially when they are not there,” said Chow, a New Democrat MP for Trinity-Spadina, who trained as a sculptor at the Ontario College of Art during her university years. After her husband’s death on Aug. 22, 2011, she made a bust of Layton, which rests atop his gravestone in the historic Necropolis cemetery in Toronto.

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After finishing off most of the statue — which depicts Layton sitting in the back seat of a tandem bike — acclaimed Toronto artist David Pellettier asked Chow to come in to help him refine the facial features.

Joan Dickson, manager at MST Bronze, saw the sculpting process unfold: “He would get the eyes right, and he wouldn’t like the mouth. He would get the mouth right, and he didn’t like the forehead. He couldn’t pull it together the way he felt he needed to.”

So, with chisel in hand, and dozens of photos of Layton from every angle hanging around the studio, Chow spent hours perfecting a face she knew better than anyone else.

“I wanted to get his smile smiling more,” she said. “More like the way people remember him.”

The sculpture is part of a tribute to Layton that includes the recent renaming of the Toronto Islands ferry terminal, now known as the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal.The statue named Jack’s Got Your Back. Stronger Together: The Layton Memorial is funded by the Ontario Federation of Labour, and will be donated to the city and erected near the terminal. In addition to the sculpture, the memorial features a flower bed, a donor wall and the inscription of his famous last words to the nation: “So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”

“The main theme of the sculpture is ‘stronger together,’ ” said Chow. “And we often said, that if you have two persons in a bike pedalling together at the same time, it’s much faster than one person alone. It’s a very fitting image of Jack Layton’s beliefs.”

The sculpture ‘experience’ For days after Layton died, the city entered a state of collective grief, with the grounds of city hall covered in chalk tributes to the former deputy mayor and city councillor. As NDP leader, he had recently climbed new heights, making his party the official opposition in Ottawa and working to bring civility back to federal politics. But in Toronto, he was simply “Jack,” the affable, approachable politician, ever visible riding his bike downtown. And very often, he was seen on a tandem bike with Chow. Days after his funeral, Olivia was approached by some people from the Toronto Islands who suggested to her there should be a whimsical sculpture of him on a tandem bike. The idea was that the front seat would remain vacant, so that people could “could sit on it and experience” the sculpture. Layton had a special connection to the islands, as he married Chow on Algonquin Island and was active in saving the island residents’ homes. All they needed now was someone to fund it. During their annual convention in 2011, the Ontario Federation of Labour brought the idea of fundraising for the monument to their members. “I have done a lot of fundraising for different projects in my life,” said OFL president Sid Ryan. “This was the easiest of fundraising ventures we could ever get into. We were flooded with donations from people as soon as they found out what we were trying to do.” In addition to hundreds of individual donations, 23 labour unions and organizations donated $10,000 each. They will all be mentioned on a donor plaque at the memorial site. Their goal was to raise $350,000, but the OFL managed to collect that and more, said Ryan. Some of the extra money will go into the maintenance of the sculpture, he said. The city donated the land along the waterfront where the statue will be erected, he said. “According to the city, two million people every year will walk by this monument, get a chance to see this statue and hopefully get a few minutes to see the statue there,” said Ryan. “His legacy will live on through this statue for many centuries.” Piece by piece There is no mistaking it’s him. On a recent visit, the almost complete statue is propped up against a wall at the MST Bronze foundry. There’s the smile, the crinkly eyes, and that distinctive moustache, preserved in a rich coating of bronze. His body is “leaner than Jack has been most years,” said Chow. “I don’t mind that at all.” Even his shoes are the real deal as Pellettier, the artist, went out and bought a pair of ankle-length Blundstones — Layton’s shoe of choice— during the sculpting phase to ensure he had the details right. Bringing Layton to life has taken more than a year. His face alone took a month to perfect. The project began last summer, when Chow brought the concept of and the vision to the foundry, choosing a company that was a champion of Canadian-made public art in Toronto. “We are really proud of doing a national figure who has tugged on the heartstrings of everybody in Canada,” said Myros Trutiak, the president of MST Bronze. “One of the big things for us is that we are using Canadian artists, foundrymen and our homegrown skills to do this. That really makes us proud.” Other statues they have created include the kids in front of the Hockey Hall of Fame at Yonge and Front Sts., the gargoyles that adorn Old City Hall, and the veterans memorial in Queen’s Park. “We feel like we are building history in Canada, so this is a big thing for us,” said Trutiak. The statue was built in a number of stages and in a number of pieces. At first, the Pellettier made a maquette, a miniature model made out of Plasticine, based on images of Layton sitting on the tandem bike. The maquette was scanned and digitized so that it could be enlarged to create a full-size structure made out of foam. Plasticine was put over the foam so that all the details could be sculpted in. Then a rubber mould was made of the head. “Rubber gives you much more accurate detail, especially on a portrait when it’s critical,” said Dickson, the manager. A wax was poured into the rubber mould, and then a ceramic shell was made around the wax. The wax was melted out, and then molten bronze was poured into the shell to complete the head, Dickson explained. A sand mould was used for the rest of the body, with a molten bronze poured into it. “In a sand casting you have to do a little more finessing of the sculpture,” she said. The handlebars, arms and legs, body and head, bicycle and the wheels were all made separately and then welded together to complete the vision. Once it was assembled, it was covered with a patina tarnish to make the sculpture “come alive.” “Twenty-five years ago, the arts community looked at bronze as old material, but now it’s everywhere,” said Trutiak. “I think they are starting to see that it is one of the noble materials that will last forever.” Chow has the same hope for the statue. A hope that centuries from now, the message inscribed on it — “And let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world” — will ring true for those who walk beside it, take a picture of it, or have a seat on the tandem bike. “The values of human beings live and die, but some of the values are eternal,” she said.

“The main theme of the sculpture is ‘stronger together,’ ” said Chow. “And we often said, that if you have two persons in a bike pedalling together at the same time, it’s much faster than one person alone. It’s a very fitting image of Jack Layton’s beliefs.”

The sculpture ‘experience’

For days after Layton died, the city entered a state of collective grief, with the grounds of city hall covered in chalk tributes to the former deputy mayor and city councillor. As NDP leader, he had recently climbed new heights, making his party the official opposition in Ottawa and working to bring civility back to federal politics.

But in Toronto, he was simply “Jack,” the affable, approachable politician, ever visible riding his bike downtown. And very often, he was seen on a tandem bike with Chow.

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Days after his funeral, Olivia was approached by some people from the Toronto Islands who suggested to her there should be a whimsical sculpture of him on a tandem bike. The idea was that the front seat would remain vacant, so that people could “could sit on it and experience” the sculpture. Layton had a special connection to the islands, as he married Chow on Algonquin Island and was active in saving the island residents’ homes.

All they needed now was someone to fund it.

During their annual convention in 2011, the Ontario Federation of Labour brought the idea of fundraising for the monument to their members.

“I have done a lot of fundraising for different projects in my life,” said OFL president Sid Ryan. “This was the easiest of fundraising ventures we could ever get into. We were flooded with donations from people as soon as they found out what we were trying to do.”

In addition to hundreds of individual donations, 23 labour unions and organizations donated $10,000 each. They will all be mentioned on a donor plaque at the memorial site.

Their goal was to raise $350,000, but the OFL managed to collect that and more, said Ryan. Some of the extra money will go into the maintenance of the sculpture, he said. The city donated the land along the waterfront where the statue will be erected, he said.

“According to the city, two million people every year will walk by this monument, get a chance to see this statue and hopefully get a few minutes to see the statue there,” said Ryan. “His legacy will live on through this statue for many centuries.”

Piece by piece

There is no mistaking it’s him. On a recent visit, the almost complete statue is propped up against a wall at the MST Bronze foundry. There’s the smile, the crinkly eyes, and that distinctive moustache, preserved in a rich coating of bronze.

His body is “leaner than Jack has been most years,” said Chow. “I don’t mind that at all.”

Even his shoes are the real deal as Pellettier, the artist, went out and bought a pair of ankle-length Blundstones — Layton’s shoe of choice— during the sculpting phase to ensure he had the details right.

Bringing Layton to life has taken more than a year. His face alone took a month to perfect.

The project began last summer, when Chow brought the concept of and the vision to the foundry, choosing a company that was a champion of Canadian-made public art in Toronto.

“We are really proud of doing a national figure who has tugged on the heartstrings of everybody in Canada,” said Myros Trutiak, the president of MST Bronze. “One of the big things for us is that we are using Canadian artists, foundrymen and our homegrown skills to do this. That really makes us proud.”

Other statues they have created include the kids in front of the Hockey Hall of Fame at Yonge and Front Sts., the gargoyles that adorn Old City Hall, and the veterans memorial in Queen’s Park. “We feel like we are building history in Canada, so this is a big thing for us,” said Trutiak.

The statue was built in a number of stages and in a number of pieces. At first, the Pellettier made a maquette, a miniature model made out of Plasticine, based on images of Layton sitting on the tandem bike. The maquette was scanned and digitized so that it could be enlarged to create a full-size structure made out of foam. Plasticine was put over the foam so that all the details could be sculpted in.

Then a rubber mould was made of the head.

“Rubber gives you much more accurate detail, especially on a portrait when it’s critical,” said Dickson, the manager. A wax was poured into the rubber mould, and then a ceramic shell was made around the wax. The wax was melted out, and then molten bronze was poured into the shell to complete the head, Dickson explained.

A sand mould was used for the rest of the body, with a molten bronze poured into it. “In a sand casting you have to do a little more finessing of the sculpture,” she said.

The handlebars, arms and legs, body and head, bicycle and the wheels were all made separately and then welded together to complete the vision. Once it was assembled, it was covered with a patina tarnish to make the sculpture “come alive.”

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