When I first met Joan
she asked me to create a contemporary landscape sculpture or water feature for her front yard. But when she took me to her spacious backyard I had a completely different idea. The yard was disrupted by a shoddy fence, badly-colored fireplace and worse, its focal point was all the walls of the house behind hers.
But there it was, tucked under a pine tree ~ a bust of the Buddha.
In our conversation that followed, I discovered Joan is a practicing Buddhist, and knew I had a meaningful theme that would change everything about the texture of her yard.
औंकार ~ Aumkara
I learned more about Joan's philosophy and began a design that would beautify the yard and reflect her teachings. Her yard would be a sanctuary, a meditation center to calm the senses.I began the project with 6 custom bamboo panels that were a barrier to the neighbor's home, while they lent a visual flavor of Nepal, birthplace of Buddhism.
Furthering that aura, two matching sculptures bookend the re-colored fireplace. An appreciation of her work, they include the classic symbol Aumkara (om), the lotus flower, plus other spiritual signs all mated with traditional geometric Southwestern figures. Blue and green float glass highlights key images you see mirrored left and right.
