James Anderson Lewis is a sculptor & teacher who lives and works in Ventura, CA.

The Stone Totems
The three limestone totems for “Free Speech’ were carved over a period of ten years, beginning in 2010…

The three totems are  representative of the periods of the first three Presidents since the new millennium in 2000: George W. Bush, Barrack Hussien Obama, and Donald Trump.  This series was inspired by the death threats placed on the lives of Trey Parker and Matt Stone , the creators of my favorite animation South Park after they portrayed the Islamic prophet Mohummad as a teddy bear.  While in no way do I condone hateful speech nor do I support insulting the religions of others , I firmly believe in my country's citizen right to speak about any subject freely and without violent retribution.  Freedom of Speech is a leg upon which all democracies stand firmly.

The three stone totems are the stories of each administration.

My intention is for the viewer to  feel as though these articles are of days long past, like so many great cultures like the Mayan and Egyptian, and to feel their place in time, connected together in the desire to be free. Using symbols both old and new, to interpret and contemplate the meanings in the viewer’s own historical remembrance.  I chose to tell the events of George Bush's tenure using characters similar in simplicity to the characters in South Park , the men are square, the women are round. 

Barrack Obama's totem explains events during his tenure in Egyptian hieroglyphics, since he looks similar to the Pharaoh Akhenaten , the heretic pharaoh who created massive changes in Egyptian society.

Donald Trump’s only term is told in the style of the great Mayan culture. I wanted to represent his racist beliefs with a culture he mostly dismissed and mistreated.

I invite you to examine each piece slowly and let them open your sense of history, creating your own sense of time in our current history. Imagine you have found these and you are a thousand years into the future.

What do you think has happened to the planet?