Meet the Artist
Christopher Moench
Sculpture
Chris Moench was raised in the Colorado Rockies, and his early memories of that wild country inspired his interest in art, land preservation, and wilderness travel. After co-starting a pottery studio on San Juan Island at 18, he received a Bachelor's degree from Fairhaven College at Western Washington University in 1987. In 1992, he pursued a full-time career in pottery, founding Dancing Dog Clayworks. In 2000, a gasoline pipeline explosion near his home moved him to create his first prayer wheel, which became a vessel for community reflection. Today, he works full-time designing and sculpting prayer wheels for his company, “Axis of Hope.” He has created more than 2,000 prayer wheels for individuals, hospitals, non-profits, and religious organizations. He has presented two prayer wheels to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and created one as a gift to President Barack Obama. He lives in Bellingham, Washington, and volunteers as a board member of Whatcom Land Trust.
Materials and tools used include: wheel-thrown porcelain or stoneware ceramic vessels illustrated with sgraffito or mishima techniques to depict narrative images of our natural world. The vessels are fired to cone 6 (2,234 f.) in an electric kiln, then attached to a high-quality metal turntable allowing it to be spun easily.
Follow Chris on Facebook.