Totem Poles

Wooden Bowls | Large Bowls | Norfolk Pine | Totem Poles

Prices range from $500 to $2000. For purchase, please inquire at LeeAnn Brook Fine Art.

Stunning Norfolk Pine totems transform entryways and landscapes.

 

“A Warm Welcome” is just one of many reasons the indigenous peoples of North America erected totem poles, but it’s my favorite reason. To create this piece required brute strength on a lathe, and the finesse of 500-grit sandpaper to bring it to a silken finish.

 

 

Most indigenous totem poles are carved out of a single log. I cut a single tree into “rounds.” The dark rings on the totem poles are evidence of the characteristic symmetrical, annual growth of branches. The varied distance between the rings of the totem rounds indicates how much rain the tree received in any given year.

 

 

This is the first of a series of 100 unique totems, each carrying a special message or meaning. The timber was harvested because of fungal infection. Ironically, the black streaks of the infection, known as “spalting” to woodworkers, are what add to the beauty of the wood.

 

 

These totems represent a breakthrough in my art. This totem is a complete 10-foot long log cut into five smaller rounds placed exactly as the tree had grown. This dying tree was saved from a slow death and resurrected into a new life as a unique work of art.