At the end of the landscaping the island in the driveway looked good, but a bit plain. Mind you, it was much better than what we started with (see before and after images at the right). Our landscaper suggested a bit of garden sculpture.

Mitsuko and I visited a gallery for garden sculpture and fountains in Berkeley to get some ideas. The result was a fountain for the back yard (the pictures at left) and some ideas of what we liked and didn’t like. Mitsuko then came up with a rough idea which we showed to Larry Wilson, a weekend artist recommended by our Landscaper.

Larry took our ideas and came up with a rough sketch of a ceramic center piece enclosed by a “spinner” held by a steel tripod. The “spinner” will turn in the wind. The pictures below are various angles of the ceramic centerpiece before being placed in the driveway turnaround.

Larry has named the piece Guardian. Our job is to figure out which direction will face the front gate.

A concrete pad was poured, with a steel post to support the piece. The post goes 20-24 inches below the top of the pad, set in concrete, for stability. About 24 hours after the pad was poured the piece was set over the post on a base of mortar. The steel tripod and spinner will be added in 7-10 days.

The last bits are done. The inner steel “fingers” rotate gently in the wind. It’s OK.