Since the early days of Patio Paradise, I have realized that the natural organic shapes of my fountains would not suit all settings or everyone’s tastes. In nature there are indeed straight lines and all of your basic geometric shapes.  In high school I enjoyed plane geometry.

In mid Nov. 2002, I had a consultation for just such a Contemporary Design fountain. The prospective client lived in Melbourne, Fl.  When he called he told me he was looking at my website and asked if I made contemporary geometric fountains. Everything in his home was contemporary and geometric, bold glass shapes in his front door, a tic tac toe grid art piece of fruit in the kitchen; but in the front yard he had outcroppings of real coquina rock.   I admitted that  my work was natural and organic; contemporary geometric wasn’t what I normally did; but I was up to the challenge. I traveled from my home in Tampa across the state. He and I spent several hours working on the design using small geometric shapes cut out of graph paper. He said he needed a 3D sketch to show his wife.  I drove from Melbourne up to Daytona Beach where my daughter Brandy lived.  She and I spent several hours working on the sketch of the design. She has made several sketches for me over the years.  She learned the basics of drawing by watching “The Secret City” with “Commander Mark”, Mark Kistler on PBS when she was younger. The original design was supposed to be eight feet tall and four feet wide.  I didn’t get the job, but I kept the design and the sketch in the back of my mind.

In January 2005 when I began to think of applying to juried fine art shows, I dusted off the sketch and made the half scale version you see above.