Zen Garden Series

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.
Carl Jung, 1865 - 1961
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Zen Garden 01, 36H x 48W x 2D inches mixed media: acrylics, geranium leaf, modeling paste, texture medium on canvas wrapped sides textured, main canvas inset, 4" wide box-frame, gold and red crackle outer frame

The first Zen Garden, one in a 4-piece commission, inspired the ongoing series.
After the first few pieces in the Zen Garden series (2000 - 2004), when they were fairly large, and commercial texture mediums so expensive even in large quantities, I began experimenting with other materials to reduce the costs.
Adding sand and pebbles to modeling paste still made finished pieces quite heavy, and still expensive.
Zen Gardens since 2004 have varying solutions of acrylics paint, texture medium, mat gel paste, white glue, plaster, modeling paste, and kitty litter (new of course!) on canvas...lots of different kitty litter out there with differing absorbencies, but I've found one that stays course and doesn't sop up too much water.
Some pieces are made with woven canvas, LED lights, or have hand-made mosaic tiles.

My approach emphasizes value in the work process, where means to expression are diverse. Styles reflect intuitive responses to subjects, emotional memories, media, format, etc.