Totem

Totem was commissioned by the Omaha Public Art Commission with funds donated by the J. Doe Project (2001).

The sculpture pays homage to the prehistoric hunters and gatherers of central North America, who facilitated their economic, social and religious community life by building massive earthen sculptures. These effigy mounds, found along the Upper Mississippi River and built prior to 1300 AD, were earthen representations of mammals, reptiles, birds and geometric forms.

The animal shapes depicted in "Totem" are recorded in "The Iowa Effigy Mound Manifestation: An Interpretive Model" by R. Clark Mallam, University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologists; circa 1976. This contemporary sculpture was fabricated of aluminum, with the aid of computers and the calculations of engineers, while carefully replicating the ancient shapes of the earth effigy mounds.