Roberto Burle Marx

Creating granite waterfeatures is not unlike the delicacy of deep-water yacht racing:  Racing big boats across the open sea requires intuitive sense in harnessing the raw powers of nature, much as do the creative insights needed to take raw monoliths from quarry walls and produce elegant expressions that reflect our primal essence. Both endeavors must gracefully balance the unbridled forces of nature.  In yacht racing, wind and waves must be brought into harmony with a yacht's unique rigging and sails by its skipper and crew.  With granite waterfeatures, an innate sense of harmonic balance must be struck between granite and/or water, the landscape and the human observer's ability to appreciate solemnity.   In my case, these harmonies have consistently been found in asymmetry.  Indeed, I've come to feel confident with the premise that people are, knowingly or not, drawn to the asymmetrical balances they see in nature.  I also see both art and architecture as skillful reflections and expressions of what we have observed in nature from time immemorial.   To that end, I try to create works that draw their form and spirit from the intuitive balance of asymmetry.  Whether sculpting a landscape, setting stones in a rock garden or