March 8, 2007
Associate professor of art Todd McGrain was commissioned by the Zen Center in Rochester, NY, to create the sculpture for the centerpiece of its newly completed Founder’s Garden. The garden is dedicated to the memory of Roshi Philip Kapleau, founder of the Zen Center. The sculpture, 42 inches in diameter and 24 inches tall, is an octagonal column of Columbia River basalt. Because of the unusually large size of this single crystal, it took a Washington quarry a year to find it. McGrain’s design, a perfect, polished circle, gives the hard stone the quality of a reflective pool.
