The Rock Series: Zap

In the early 1980s, Nance O'Banion visited the famous Zen rock garden Ryoanji, in Kyoto, Japan. While comparing her experience of the serenely elegant garden with her companion's, she had the insight that the rocks allowed us our own interpretation and meanings drawn from our own personal issues and perspectives. Shortly after her trip O'Banion created a group of mixed media sculptures called The Rock Series, that she describes as having a microscopic Zen garden reality. Zap, with its jagged shape, bristly texture and vibrant colors, seems to lack the contemplative quality usually associated with a Zen garden, yet it encourages viewers to look deeply and to form their own associations.