Story-Telling Totems

Before+painting%2C+the+art+students+must+draw+the+layout+of+their+totems.

Before painting, the art students must draw the layout of their totems.

This week, Mrs. Morgan, the Canton High School art teacher, is having her art classes work on personalized totems. These totems are illustrations that tell a small story for each student. This helps students better understand the process of creating pieces of artwork, along with other concepts of art as well.\

These totems are an extension to the regular use of the traditional use of totems. Instead of having images about culture or family history, the students choose three basic concepts about themselves: an animal that represents them, an interest or hobby, and an image showing a goal they want for their future. These images will either be arranged on a circular or a vertical picture plane, depending on which better expresses the student’s story.

As the students develop their observational drawing skills, they are also learning how to better generate ideas to work from. They plan how their chosen images will look together, how they are be placed, and how the images interact with each other. In doing this, the students gain the knowledge of how to bring their personal vision to a piece of artwork.

“The main purpose of the totems are for students to successfully communicate these basic concepts about themselves. If the student doesn’t try, then the communication between the viewer and the artist isn’t successful,” Morgan said.

Along with creating the artwork, Mrs. Morgan would like the students learn some other concepts as well.

“With any art project we want to accomplish continued practice of composition, drawing, painting, other media, and of course, learning to observe,” Morgan said.

With the topic prompts based off of the students’ experiences and goals, these totems will help with self expression.