Artist's Statement:

Chris Moench's first prayer wheel memorialized a hometown tragedy:
On June 10, 1999 tragedy struck my hometown Bellingham. A gas pipeline ruptured and leaked 237,000 gallons of fuel into a creek in a city park. The gas exploded. Flames roared downstream 1 1/2 miles through a forested valley. Two 10-year-old boys and an 18-year-old young man died in the accident. A swath of forest and a rehabilitated salmon stream were destroyed.

In those golden hours before the world caught fire, the "boys" were doing what boys do--fly fishing and horsing around in a beautiful place called Whatcom Falls Park. Whatcom Falls Creek, which winds through the Park's 80-foot-tall fir trees was a magical place indeed. It was a creek musical enough for waterfalls and deep enough for swimming, wild enough for otters and meditative enough for casting a fly line across leaf-blurring current. In short, it was the kind of place I played when I was a kid. It simply never occurred to me--or most families with active, outdoor-loving kids--what dangers flow through seemingly serene landscapes.

When the explosion occurred, I was standing a few miles away in another public park with my parents--right on top of the same pipeline. As I drove home, inky black smoke puffed over the horizon. Everyone was panicked.

I was deeply troubled by the loss of the young lives and the environmental destruction. I wanted to make a sculptural response that would help people reflect on the event and to encourage people to live by their highest ideals. After a year of meditation following the disaster I came across a photo of a pre-Columbian Mayan clay sculpture. It was a simple cylinder with bas-relief images depicting some mythic tale around its circumference. In a flash the concept of using the form to tell the story of the gasoline spill and inferno came clear to my mind.

On my studio kick wheel I threw and built a three-foot-tall clay cylinder. On the outside I carved the Whatcom Creek Memorial "story." Working on my revolving kick wheel, I realized the images came "alive" when the piece turned. The viewer could see a story unfold simply by turning the wheel with one hand. Soon after, the sculpture was mounted on a revolving stand at an outdoor gallery, Big Rock Garden. It became a vessel to touch, turn and interact with.

I encouraged lookers to: PLEASE TOUCH THE ART PIECE! Some people placed pieces of paper with thoughts and prayers in the small opening on the wheel's top. Without knowing, I created my first prayer wheel. Ever since, my clay work has taken a different direction.

What Is an AXIS OF HOPE™ Prayer Wheel?
A prayer wheel is an ancient concept. Many people are familiar with the traditional Buddhist form found in the mountain villages of Tibet and Nepal. Made of metal, leather, or wood and ranging in size from a soup can to a 500-gallon drum--each prayer wheel is inscribed and packed with written prayers. With a push of one's hand the prayer wheel cylinder whirls. Each revolution counts as uttered prayer.

While the prayer wheels I create are not necessarily Buddhist, the concept and intent is similar. A prayer wheel offers a tactile and visual meditation, a way of cultivating mindfulness of the ideals one wishes to live by. Two years after I inadvertently created my first ceramic prayer wheel, my wife, daughter and I were trekking in Nepal's mountains. There I experienced a magical moment with a traditional prayer wheel. (See Prayer Wheel Uses: Traditional) Watching a giant traditional prayer wheel turn, I again felt charged by the storytelling capabilities of a cylinder carved with moving and meaningful images. Filled with prayers, this simple but exquisite vessel turned people to their core beliefs, reminded them of what they hold most important. It underscored for me this was my real work.

Considering the troubling state of our planet and humanity's ongoing search for hope--the wheel provides an axis that radiates optimism, healing, peace, wholeness, love, compassion and harmony among all things. It is an AXIS OF HOPE™ spinning counter to so many negative things! And so my business took on a new name.

My modern-day prayer wheels explore the theme of hope. Each wheel tells a story through images inscribed or carved into the clay. As the wheel turns on its pedestal, the images flow, the story unfolds...

Some stories are simple--such as leaves falling or a bird in flight. Others celebrate natural cycles of life, death and rebirth--a moon waxing and waning over a skyline of mountains...a stream burgeoning with salmon, bears, eagles.... Some tell human stories such as the civil rights struggle. Others display a musical score or poetic text. Other stories are more personal.

And, like traditional prayers wheels, AXIS OF HOPE™ vessels can be filled with your written prayers, dreams and hopes.