The Totem Series: Introduction

Last year I began to create a set of lino prints inspired by the totem pole I saw many times in the Cambridge  Arch and Anth.  museum.  It made a powerful impression, the pole was placed in the middle of an atrium and up on the balcony you found it still towering overhead.  I loved the stylised powerful animals stacked up like a kids toy, capped with the mighty thunderbird on top. There's a small piece on it here by Allegra Jaffe.

I had always loved the art of printmakers and after a steep learning curve when it came to carving lino I decided to create my own totem pole based on this kind of artwork, made from a series of blocks which would be the same size and could be printed into the pole in any order.  I was looking for animals that I considered to be my totems.  In Native American mythology your totem or spirit animal speaks to you at different times in your life depending on the guidance you need.  For myself I chose animals that spoke to a part of me.

I also included plants.  All had to be plants that kill or heal, that are medicinal in small doses and lethal in larger.  The creative is also the destructive.  Curiously I chose 9 animals along with the thunderbird.  At Legends of America, never read before today, 9 is the number of animals identified as a person's lifetime spirit animal companions.