02M-2, "Symphony #1 in 3 minor" (July 19)

The idea for the multiple sculpture arose while talking with an artist friend of mine. We were working on ideas to make my small sculptures work in contest plots. That was some time around late 1995, early 1996, and in my mind I was thinking of a Zen rock garden.

I made the first multiple in 1996, at Harrison Hot Springs for the World Championship. My sculpture was destroyed by the preservative spray I was required to use. Because my only firm memory was of the sculpture in pieces, I had few good feelings about it until a friend sent me a photograph he'd taken just before it blew up. The photo clearly shows that the idea worked.

When my pile of sand at the 1996 Santa Cruz contest failed upon unwrapping, I rebuilt it as a multiple. I liked it but knew it was very rough.

After that, the multiple idea lay fallow as I explored other ideas. When I was contacted in the summer of 2002 to help a team build a sculpture, I turned to a multiple plan to fill our plot. The sculpture was rough but won the contest.

Not long after that I decided to try a multiple for myself. The Zen garden idea came back. I'd have three sculptures in a rectangular pit, and the late afternoon high tide should fill the pit and form a pool that would--briefly--reflect the sculptures.

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A man came walking along the beach while Rich and I were working, and watched for a time. We talked and he became interested. Then he started helping. I'd never done a sculpture with excavation around the base. We had to remove a lot of sand before the tide came in. Rich and Bob Jeffords did that so the site was clean when the tide arrived. Here they are, watching the tide rise.

Official Builder Photo by Bob Jeffords