By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer
On July 22, I showed an eyebrow-raising geometric entry by Kathy Swehla. Now I’ll show her favorite part of the same landscape: a rear-garden sculpture that grabs you on many levels. It’s certainly among the best contemporary stone art piece I’ve seen in 30-some years of garden gawking.
You first see it when you walk through the front door, since it frames a bit of the view between the house and Liberty Lake (near Spokane, Washington). Then you gradually realize what’s going on here: it’s the centerpiece of a lovely, bubbling water feature—and the setting for a gas fire circle (see the close-up at left).
As Swehla described it, "The sculptural piece is created out of a single slab of sandstone that was roughly rectangular, 11 by 10 feet and 6 to 8 inches thick. The front, back, and sides are completely natural: no . . . finishing. The only cut is the center line and circle."
Swehla designed this project with Land Expressions in Mead, Washington (509 466-6683).
