Totemic Theory #1

Acrylic on canvas   78" x 16" x 12"
©2000 by Clarissa Hudson
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Our friend StephenTholberg was telling us one day about some 3-dimensional canvas he'd built for a girlfriend years ago.  My husbnd, Bill, started talking about making some of our own 3-D canvases, and I had a sudden inspiration. "How about a canvas shaped like a totem pole?" 

A week later he had built the first pair of totem-shaped canvases built, and the resulting two paintings — a matched set of abstract Northwest Coast inspired poles — went on to win "Best of Class: Painting" at the Santa Fe Indian Market, for my first set of totemic paintings.

Many of the image elements in the piece are drawn from my past button blanket designs, but the colors are from somewhere else...most likely the Southwest, where we were living at the time. The canvas is stretched over masonite carefully nailed to a wooden curved frame; although the backside is flat. The top and bottom of the poles are capped with gold leaf over wood.

One of the poles traveled the U.S. with the Museum of Art & Design's exhibit of contemporary Native American artworks, Changing Hands II.

Photo courtesy Museum of Art & Design, New York.

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