This drawing had a curious start. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art I saw a painted design on an ancient Egyptian wall fragment. It seemed to me to be based on the number 9, so later I attempted to construct a drawing on similar principles. However, I got tangled up, not having the original before me and not having clarity on what the painter actually did. So that idea was abandoned and I worked on what was in front of me.
Totem is based on nine squares, each divided in half. In the beginning it was faintly defined with blue and red pencil, but as I kept coming back to it over the course of several months, the image that gives it its name finally appeared.
Graphite, color pencil and strips of manuscript paper. 6 3/4"x 6 3/4".