Featured Totem Sculpture (???)

Let me start by saying that this was worth what I paid for it. Probably it's nothing. But there was just enough about the shape and the proportion, the balance and the color to make me check it out. I've seen worse things.

It's 15" (38cm) tall and I found it in a Portland, Oregon US thrift store. Something written under the paint on the base. I don't know where on the appropriation vs appreciation continuum it falls, but it's not N.A.

All comments appreciated. Thanks!

 

maybe a Scouting project , of sorts..??

 

That's a good idea. I shoulda thought of that.

 

That's why you have me here !!!!!!!!!........

 

Though, if it is a Scouting project, I hope they did not get the badge for hand-painting!

 

The 'Scouting' angle is what immediately popped into my head.Think 1950's 'Indian Guides' meets Jackson Pollock .

 

Clearly not NA, but no one here is saying that. There is something oddly appealing about it. The rough painting style... could it be deliberate??? A great masterpiece or the work of an 8 year old? The shape of it is nice as you said. I probably would have grabbed it too for a few bucks. Just to think about it for a while!

 

Wow. Great minds think alike. I also vote for Scout or summer camp project. Summer camps back before the 60s always had quasi-NA names. Locally, we had Camp Nan-Ke-Rafe.

 

It looks like it is assembled from children's wood blocks, with some degree of skill in the joinery. I would vote for the "crude" painting style being deliberate, and an example of "outsider art".

 

Now that you mention it, I'm seeing a set of blocks my kids had.

 

Modernist? Brutalist? I'm moderately attracted.

 

no thanks , gimme the real thing....!!

 

That was my thinking exactly!

I think you're right.

I like the sound of that.

And I'm moderately attractive. At least in my own mind.

 

Wow!!

 

I did find this one by Betty Parsons:

 

I'd like to see that in my collection...

 

Wow-look at the wingspan on Komo's version- part drone, part pterodactyl !

 

It's a Sisuitl , ...... a protector creature !
Good for putting over your front door !

 

I’m with you. Hard pass. Top bird is nice enough, it goes down hill from there. My opinion is for the birds though.