Totem Animal!

griffin’s totem/namesake

I guess this one is kind of obvious for me. Although, I’m feeling that even if i DID have the combined awesome powers of both the lion and the eagle (yes, yes they do have powers…. awesome ones) that I would still be thwarted by CSS, PHP, and AS3 at every turn. And don’t even get me started on Suitcase corrupting all those fonts yesterday! Squaaaawwwk! Rarrrr!

I have been told that my totem animal in the chipmunk, but I would rather be a brontosaurus*, unicorn or octopus.

* Even though the Brontosaurus technically was paleontological faux pas, its still my favorite dinosaur – go go thunder lizard!

matt schoch as a totem!

i thought of what i think my totem would be like, though i couldn’t pick just one…..
the first obviously was a cat!
the second less obvious but rather appropriate is a hummingbird! did you know that they have to eat every hour in order to keep up the energy to fwap those wings! there are some that live in the mountains and they, in order to not die from cold at night, actually hibernate every single night! at least according to david attenborough in his documentary life of birds. if you haven’t seen it, come over and lets watch it together!

also i figured that my totems would have styles that are snaps all around! look at those blue vegan chukka boots on that bird! don’t worry, he knows his roots: his mom knit him that scarf.

i too will try harder from here on out to make more beautiful illustrations!

my totem (a cheat)…

hey gang… w/ the snow days here in iowa hitting me hard… i had to cheat a bit this week. grunge the goat (on the left) was from a recent project. since grunge is somewhat based on my time in the 90s… i felt it only fitting he be my totem. i’ll try harder next week… haha…

Mecha-Tamara

Maybe this doesn’t make any sense – but I have this fuzzy memory of watching a Mecha Godzilla movie when I was younger and the turtle Gamera (mecha version) could fly by shooting flames out of its legs and the little kids could go inside Gamera like a space ship to travel to Mecha world. Uh, don’t know what it says about me but there ya go.

Some animal pals agreed to hold my animal “totem” for me

©Erin Shigaki, 2009

Deken’s Sifaka

Decken's Sifaka

My totem for today is a Deken’s Sifaka, taking a good look at the world from way up high.

I have been enthralled with these lemurs since seeing them in the November National Geographic—Their large orange eyes seem to be curious and a little haunting.