Assignment: Your Totem Pole

Grading: 100 points

Monumental carvings, otherwise known as totem poles, moved from house posts to funerary containers to memorial markers. Since they were traditionally made of wood, most have deteriorated over time, so dating the ceremonial monuments is difficult. We're not worried about dating them; were going to concern ourselves with making our own!

For this assignment, you will be creating your own totem pole. While historically, totem poles evolved to represent social status, yours is going to tell the story of your emotional state on a typical day or week. Include what you do, how you look/feel in the morning, how you feel by the end of the day.

This is not an ART project so don't get scared. There is no wrong way to do this. The key here is to begin to let go of your fears and inhibitions as you CREATE your personal totem pole.

Your final totem pole does not need to look like a real totem pole.
THINK CREATIVELY!

You can use magazine cutouts, photos, line drawings, stick drawings, color, shapes, symbols or anything else you can think of to get your feeling for that day across.

Scan your completed totem pole (if done traditionally) and save as a jpg file to INSERT, using the "insert picture" icon, in the Discussion area.

DO NOT tell us what emotion you are trying to convey.

Once you upload your image you will see other student work and you are then REQUIRED to comment by adding the WORD that best describes the feeling YOU, the viewer, gets when you look at the totem pole and tell us why.

You will comment on AT LEAST TWO other classmates works to get full credit for this assignment.

Some helpful links:
Totem Pole wikipedia
Enduring Power of Totem Poles
Totem Pole Crafts

assignment from: "caffeine for the creative mind" by mamaw and oldfield