ARTHUR GANSON
Thinking Chair
There was a small rock outcropping on a favorite trail in the woods near my old studio in Massachusetts. I often found myself deep in thought, walking in slow circles around the edge of this grand stone mound. For me it was a walking meditation, where each cycle found me back in the same physical place, but in a slightly different emotional place. One day I came across a small loose rock with a nice flat face... and the idea for 'Thinking Chair', a self-portrait of this walking/meditation, came into being. As it turns out, circular walking meditations have been practiced for a very long time! Many years ago I had the opportunity to visit Borobudur, the Mahayana Buddhist Temple in Indonesia which was designed for this purpose!
This piece is currently on exhibit at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA