Perhaps the title Totem best describes the overall 'dimensions of life' concept explored in these murals. As a project for a high school auditorium, these pieces investigate both educational and traditional sides of life.
On the 'closest' surface, an exhibition of vintage photos surveys the many layers of early Alaskan life. At this level we view chapters of early settlers/families and their land. There's something about looking into the life-sized eyes of children that would now be 110 adds poignancy to the story.
The framed photos start to billow and metamorphose into curtains. As curtains, they are drawn to reveal two theater stages. Looming in the darkness one of these presentations - the DNA double helix - characterizes life itself, while the other bay houses an ancient Greek colonnade: a temple of science, philosophy, and the arts.
Reaching up like totems, the Doric columns support a ceiling fresco of Mycenaean flying fish. As the capitols touch this membrane of life, the upper portions of the columns are illuminated with greater clarity - as if the contact with life defines their substance, or even their existence.
The colorful double helix model is the ultimate totem. Like insects preserved in amber, the random animals represented in the jewel-like acid strands add a new dimension to the genome. The sequence of acid strands is paralleled to a sequence of spirit animals not unlike the totems that define specific clans. Both are the building blocks of life. This hybrid of science and mysticism is symbolic of Alaska’s time-honored traditions as well as its place in the modern world.
