Flowering

Granite, basalt. 2012. 25 1/2” high. Private collection.

Flowering is a perfect example of something that doesn’t happen very often – – to find a beautiful granite boulder on a beach that requires almost no carving.  I slightly reshaped around the bottom to make it seat well on its base, then shaped and polished a slight irregularity near the top and incised a simple ‘asterisk’ into it to suggest a poppy pod.  The base is a broken hexagonal basalt column from the eastern Washington desert, incised with a suggestion of petals.  In its home in a Portland, Oregon garden, Flowering rests on a plinth of rusted steel.

Photos by Lee Gass