# The Black Shell Ceramic totem

A large conch shell sits at the very top, black and cream, its surface covered in bold floral marks. Below it a wide bird spreads across the composition, and beneath that a face emerges from a deep black cylinder, gold accents glowing quietly against the dark ground. Red collar elements appear at intervals, the only warmth in an otherwise nocturnal palette. This totem does not come at you - it waits. The black ground gives it a depth and stillness that is different in character from the rest of the series, and the longer you spend with it the more it gives back. Works indoors as a dramatic focal point or outside in a garden where its dark palette creates a striking contrast against green.

[Browse all works by Marc Zimmerman](/collections/marc-zimmerman)

## Details

- **Price:** 4000.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Art Scout
- **Type:** Ceramic Sculpture
- **Tags:** animal art, buy original art online, California artist, ceramic sculpture, collector art, hand-built ceramic, Marc Zimmerman, totem

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 4000.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- The Black Shell Ceramic Totem – hand-built ceramic totem by Zimmerman with large black and cream conch shell at crown with bold floral marks, wide bird, face from deep black cylinder with gold accents, red collar accents throughout nocturnal palette waiting to be discovered
- The Black Shell by Zimmerman – detail of black and cream conch shell with bold floral marks at crown of nocturnal totem
- The Black Shell by Zimmerman – full view of nocturnal totem with face from deep black cylinder with gold accents and red collar warmth
- The Black Shell by Zimmerman – close-up of face emerging from deep black cylinder with gold glowing quietly and intricate hand-drawn marks throughout
- The Black Shell by Zimmerman – totem as dramatic indoor focal or striking garden contrast against green with depth revealed over time
- The Black Shell Ceramic totem
- The Black Shell Ceramic totem

## Additional Information

- **Dimensions:** 60'' high
- **Artist Material:** Ceramic
- **Artist Name:** Marc Zimmerman
- **About The Artist Link:** https://www.artscout.pro/collections/marc-zimmerman

### About The Artist Content

Marc Zimmerman is an American painter and ceramic sculptor based in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, recognized for exuberant, color-driven works that fuse tropical imagery, figurative elements, and stylized botanical forms. Across both canvas and clay, his practice is defined by a playful visual language and a confident orchestration of color that feels at once joyful, intuitive, and structurally resolved.

Zimmerman’s distinctive vocabulary was shaped early through his work in woodcut printmaking, which instilled the crisp edges and compositional clarity that continue to anchor his paintings today. His lush, immersive environments draw inspiration from the dreamlike worlds of Henri Rousseau and Paul Gauguin, while extended periods living and painting in Kauai, Hawaii, as well as time in Mexico and Europe, infused his work with the saturated light and rhythmic vitality that define his celebrated Jungle and Tropical Fantasy Floral series.

In recent years, Zimmerman has returned to his earliest artistic passion, clay, expanding his practice into the sculptural realm with his Garden Totems. These vertically stacked ceramic works are hand-built and individually glazed, each element supporting the next in a spontaneous, intuitive process. Rooted in his pottery background from Venice Beach in the 1960s and 70s, the totems translate his painterly sensibility into three dimensions, bringing the same sense of movement, humor, and joie de vivre into the garden or interior space.

A lifelong artist with more than four decades of studio practice, Zimmerman has been an active presence on the Monterey Peninsula since the 1990s. His work is represented by galleries in California, Florida, and New York, and is held in private collections throughout the United States and internationally.

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> Source: [Art Scout](https://www.artscout.pro/products/the-black-shell-ceramic-totem)
> Updated: 2026-05-30