The Francis Ring

One of the more recent activities at the Myra House has been a restoration garden project. A pile of crumbling rocks has been transformed to an earthbag-laid polyculture hub. This hub now grows all sorts of medicinal and culinary herbs, flowering plants, and waterwise succulents. Colorful ceramic tiles, each of which bears a symbolic representation of a member of the Sohn family, adorns the mound. Recycled glass bottles were inserted under sandbags in rhythmic sequence generating wavelike movement. St. Francis statue sits in the center.

The spiral shape of the mound represents change, progression, and new birth as demonstrated in nature from a cactus flower to a spiral galaxy. The ascending spiral form is a metaphor for us to remain “grounded” upon this earth while at the same time, evolve “upward” mentally, spiritually, and physically. The circular form signifies a sense of whole that presents a compact expression of “subjective-objective” phenomena as a person takes adventurous journey through meaning search and engaging activity. Organic form as sign of physiology that can lift viewers or participants, possibly connecting with A. W Whitehead notion—meaning resides in the co-dependency and inter-relationships of all things in a world. Its geometric form is derived from a common relational metaphor of physical space evolving passage of time—birth, death, and rebirth.

My interest in creating eco-aesthetic environments was sparked initially by John Cobb’s probing of Whitehead’s Process and Reality and developed further as I read Whitehead’s metaphysical application to Aesthetics. I began to reflect upon the implications of Whiteheadian aesthetics for our built environment and applied it to this intense and laborious garden project. The entire project took almost 5 months from beginning to end, and it includes a kids’ playground sandbox which is adjacent to the mound. This project was mostly a solitary endeavor as it occurred during the most uncertain and anxious time of the coronavirus pandemic. I decided to take some time away from seeing patients at the acupuncture clinic since the beginning months of the pandemic. It had been a time of heartbreaking but thought provoking and redirecting my energy to this earth project.

The message that emerges from this Francis Ring is: Pandemic Despair to Wholistic Integration. The yin aspect of the downward bed of soft soil and the yang nature of the upward hard surface evoke our primal chaos which can move towards “mutual immanence” in every actual occasion. I want this ring to be a symbol of a new life emerging from this chaotic time.

Our dwelling places, including our gardens, need aesthetically pleasurable features that are also environmentally sustainable, where dwellers can grow with and amongst this environment, as opposed to remain distant spectators of their environment.  

Francis Ring Before

Francis Ring Progress

Francis Ring Evolving