Totem Pole Sculptures

Assignment

Your assignment is to create a three part sculpture inspired by the Native American tradition of totem pole carving. You will decide to create a sculpture based on your strongest personality traits or those of your family.

Objectives:

Students will understand the significance of the totem pole in Haida and other First Nation cultures.
Students will create a sculpture based on their personality traits or those of their family.
Students will create a hollow form.
Students will use additive and subtractive sculpture to forms for my design.

Art Inspiration: Totem Poles

What are Totem Poles?

Read the following article & watch the video on the page:

Types of Totem Poles:

Crest Totem Poles: Usually part of a house, they portray a family’s ancestry and the emblems of its clan.
Story-telling Totem Poles: The most common type, these are made for a wedding, to preserve history or to ridicule bad debtors.
Mortuary Totem Poles: These totem poles are made to honor the dead. Cremation ashes are often kept in a compartment in the back. A single figure represents the deceased person or their clan.

Contemporary Wood Carvers:

Preserving and Honoring Culture:

Examples

Constructing a Hollow Form Structure on an Armature:

Hollow Form on Armature.mp4

Using an armature:

Wrap newspaper around the armature so the clay doesn't get stuck.
Wrap slabs of clay around the armature until your get your desired height and shape. Score and slip seams together.
Tap with wooden piece to smooth and blend. '
You can add clay to then shape into your desired design piece.

Play "Totem" Card Game

Learning objectives:

Students will connect by sharing positive qualities about their peers

Students will choose which animal they identify with

Directions:

Get with a group of 5 +
Just using the animal cards, shuffle and divide the cards amongst each player in the group.

Giving:

Without talking - choose a quality card for each player in the group. Make note of which card is for which player.
Once all cards are selected, place the quality card in front of each group member face down- DONT SHARE IT OUT LOUD YET!

Receiving:

Organize your own cards from least important to you at the bottom to most important to you at the top.
Go around one person at a time, read the bottom card out loud. If this was the card you played for that person, tell them why you played this card for them.
Just say THANK YOU :) You're not allowed to tell them they are wrong or deny the compliment.

Group share: