One day in August of 2001, Kirk Makepeace, the principal of Polar Gemstones, was startled when his mining crew encountered a large ‘lense’ of Polar Jade in their diggings; startled because no piece larger than a bread-box had been discovered up to that time.  With great difficulty, they extracted the entire lense, having to cut it in half and then in half again with their huge quarry saw to be able to handle it.   The photo on the left shows half of the stone at the quarry.  Examining the stone, Kirk made a commercial decision to sell off the two lesser halves to his Asian customers; the other two halves, being of such remarkable quality, he determined would be preserved whole and sold only to someone who would agree to creating an artwork using the entire stone.  In 2007 one of these was acquired by a monastry in Thailand where at the present time it is being carved into a Buddha.            

    For publicity purposes, the other half was placed in a European trade show.  For the purpose, Kirk entitled it 'The Emperor Stone' and had his yard-workers polish a stylized 'tree' onto its front face to allow visitors a sample view of its remarkable interior quality.  In May, 2007, the Emperor was returned to Kirk’s ‘Jade West’ yard in Surrey, BC whence it was acquired by Vancouver businessman Sydney Belzberg who years ago had acquired some of my work.    Mr. Belzberg was seeking to add to his collection of outdoor artwork at his Vancouver home.   After much joyous discussion and consultation with landscape architect Paul Sangha. , we formed a plan for an artwork that would be specific to a site designed on Mr. Belzberg’s property.  I’ve spent more or less half my working days on the commission from June 2007 until January 2008, accomplishing all the work alone.  Take a look at ‘The Emperor’s Sunrise’ page.