Butter sculpture

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Butter sculpture is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Yak butter and dye are used to create temporary symbols for the Tibetan New Year and other religious celebrations.^[1]

[edit] North American tradition

In North America, the tradition of butter sculptures dates back to the 19th century at agricultural and state fairs in the United States^[2].

Shortly after the end of World War II, the Ontario Cream Producers Marketing Board and the Dairy Producers of Canada began a campaign to promote their products. Butter sculpting was initiated as part of this campaign along with the slogan "It's better with butter". This was intended to increase butter's market share in competition to the high-powered advertising for margarine in the late 1940s.

Butter sculptures were displayed at both the Canadian National Exhibition and Royal Agricultural Winter Fairs in Toronto. Ross Butler was the first Canadian artist to sculpt in butter at these fairs.

Ross' reputation as a farm animal artist was well known by the dairy people. He seemed like a natural choice for the agricultural theme of the promotion. He created many different life size butter sculptures between 1947 and 1954. Some of the subjects included Bessie the Butter Cow with her calf Buttercup, Barbara the Milkmaid and her butter cow, Ideal Guernsey, Canadian Olympic Figure Skater Barbara Ann Scott, Laura Secord and her cow, Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman and Queen Elizabeth II on her horse Winston. Each sculpture was life sized. They were created in refrigerated, glass cased enclosures and were displayed for the duration of each fair. At the end of the events, the butter was reclaimed and put back in the trade. The last butter sculptures that Ross created were Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at the Western Fair in London, Ontario in 1956. After that, he returned to working in clay with the familiar subjects of cattle and horses.

In 1986, a fitting tribute to Ross Butler at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair included his likeness sculpted in butter by Windsor artist, Christopher Rees.

The art of butter sculpting was briefly brought to the forefront in 2006 via the NPR radio program Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!. In the "bluff the listener" section of the program, Paula Poundstone told a tongue-in-cheek story of a career path not taken — Dick Cheney as a renowned butter sculptor. Though only a bluff, it conjured up the delightful image of the Vice President carefully whittling away at a stick of butter in an attempt to win kudos at the Wyoming State Fair. ^[3]