Axis of Hope Prayer Wheels

Biography

Chris Moench was raised in the Colorado Rockies at 8,600 feet with a pair of hiking boots on. His field geologist dad, poet mom, and siblings embarked on perennial romps amid ponderosa pine forests and snow-swept crags. Early memories of that wild country inspired his interest in art, land preservation, and wilderness travel.

Chris's Aunt Marge, a spirited sculptor, painter and art professor, planted seeds of revelation in her youthful nephew's head like: art is a path for self-expression.

Later at "Open School," a public alternative high school, Chris's enthusiastic and creative art teacher, Susie Bogard, boosted his mud-slick path. His senior project, "ceramics and glaze chemistry," made it possible to co-start a pottery studio in the San Juan Islands of Washington where, at 18, Chris moved to raise his new young family in a hand-built cabin minus electricity and running water.

Chris has subsidized his love of art by being a chimney sweep, hay bale bucker, oyster-grower, printing press operator, legal assistant, and criminal defense investigator. In 1992, Chris fled a desk job at a law firm to pursue a full-time career working clay. He founded Dancing Dog Clayworks and produced garden sculptures, tiles, and functional houseware including everything from "butter fish dishes", bowls and mugs to sinks.

In 2000, Chris's claywork took an unexpected and unique direction as it turned toward making prayer wheels. His first prayer wheel was made in response to a tragic gasoline pipeline rupture and explosion in his Bellingham Washington hometown. The inferno took the lives of three children and incinerated a mile of the forested creek running through the heart of the city. Chris was moved to create a sculpture that would tell the story and allow viewers to contribute their own written experiences and reflections. The initial inspiration for the form arose when Chris saw a photo of a pre-Columbian Mayan clay vessel. It was a simple cylinder with narrative illustrations carved around its wall. He saw that depicting the story of the pipeline disaster on a similar vessel, and mounting it on a turntable would enable people to easily read the story while physically engaging them with the sculpture. As the vessel filled with people’s written thoughts it would become a way for the wounded community to refect on the trauma and become symbol of how our communities are an expression of each person’s member’s unique experience and actions. “Prayer” in this sense is not tied to any particular religious or spiritual tradition, but is simply an expression of the universal human ability to act out of our best intentions and dearest hopes.

Today, Chris works full-time designing and sculpting modern prayer wheels for his company "Axis of Hope.™" His prayer wheels have been revolving and evolving in private and public settings across the nation and internationally.

Now, father of two grown children, Chris lives with his wife, Jennifer Hahn, a writer and wilderness guide, in Bellingham, Washington. When not in the studio, Chris and Jennifer explore by kayak and on foot the Cascades and Inside Passage of Alaska, British Columbia and Washington – where North America's brawniest glaciers, hula-dancing kelp forests, rollicking salmon streams, yammering brown bears, lolling humpback whales, lushest eagle roosts and raven-skied Old Growth Forests flourish in wild wetness.

"In nature I discover ideas for Prayer Wheel designs. My wife and I kayak and hike every chance we can get. My son North and daughter Yarrow are also avid climbers, campers, hikers and trail runners with an appreciative eye for small wonders like alpine blueberries that melt on your tongue. I feel completely blessed and wish to give something back. My work and life are extensions of my belief all things are intimately linked."

Chris also volunteers as a board member of Whatcom Land Trust, a non-profit dedicated to preserving farmland, forests, beaches, and salmon streams.