Amanda Hanson Blog 2: Totemic Form

I grew up, for the most part, along the Northwest coast so when I first found out about this assignment my main source of inspiration came from the numerous amount of Northwest tribal totem poles that I saw as a kid.

I know that for my totemic form I want I want my piece to be cylindrical, like a column. So I looked to Egyptian columns.

I also know that I want my totem to incorporate a variety of animals (some carved and the rest mishima with slip.) So I looked for any sort of totemic form that included animals wrapped around it.(The top image is a Chinese totem, and the bottom image is a carved wooden totem from some theme park, but I'm not sure which.)

For the top of my totem (like a lid though I'm not settled on it yet) I'm actually considering using an obelisk form. For years now I've loved Bernini's work and I've wanted to create something similar to his Elephant with an obelisk.