Stoneleaf+Fairycircle

Installed between March 15 and April 28, this environmental sculpture was a collaborative effort between the Town of Cary Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources staff, community volunteers, and Dr. Layne.  Combining aesthetic engineering and community icons, this sculptural installation spotlighted the important connection that exists between natural and cultural systems by manipulating the river stones of an existing drainage area.  By installing a curvilinear bamboo form to create the central vein of this stone leaf pattern and incorporating stone veins and counter-clockwise cosmic spirals, the sculptured landscape improved stormwater runoff surge conditions from the adjacent parking lots.  Conceptually, the stone leaf form with broken edges signifies the changing forces of nature as the leaf decomposes and becomes part of the soil which nourishes the growth of new leaves, and the cycle continues.  Over 140 volunteers from local high schools, a veteran’s organization, youth from the chamber of commerce and Spruce, and the general public spent 328 man, woman and children hours working on the project, completing the installation of the final stone spirals during the 2012 Spring Daze Arts and Crafts Festival.

In addition, Layne created seven integrated large-scale (7 to 11 feet high) bright-colored fabric mushroom forms arranged in the main spiral disc form to create a fairy circle.  There are actually 60 different mushrooms that can grow from the underground fungus or spores of a fairy ring or circle, the most common is the edible Scotch Bonnet (Marasmius oreades).  Based upon European and especially Celtic folklore, a fairy ring of mushrooms was thought to be a gateway into the elfin kingdom, a place where pixies and fairies gathered and danced, and thus the mushrooms became a symbolic representation of the Spring Daze celebration.

The stone veins, cosmic spiral patterns, and bamboo spine of Stoneleaf+Fairycircle can also be viewed from the raised boathouse deck as one looks from the lakeshore toward the parking lot.  Created using a sequence of smaller stones in the center to larger stones on the outer edge, each spiral form creates a depression that acts as a mini detention basin to slow down stormwater runoff while collecting debris that would otherwise flow downhill into the adjacent Bond Lake.