It's pre-photography, a fossilization of time, Americans have done the Zen garden to death. I wanted to do something different.

I have a strong feeling about this quick movement and changing of society and populations growing - something scary.

I feel that I'm in a very interesting position, where I'm standing back to look at this change, at this moment in history of human beings. If the end of the civilization comes before the end of my life, that's lucky! I want to witness how this big story of humans ends.

Many people [still] believe that at the time of your death, 1,000 Buddhas show up and welcome you into the paradise state.

Not any particular religion or school of religion, but being an artist, you have to be spiritual, in a way.

I want to put it back together now, this artistic expression that contains religious feeling. I want to investigate: What was the origin? What's happened in the human mind? Can we trace back the moment of the creation of human consciousness? And why did only humans gain consciousness, not other animals? So, evolution? I don't know whether or not I can believe evolution. Maybe we wait for another 100,000 years and then apes get consciousness.

Waterlilies always come in Buddhist sculpture. The Buddhas all stand on lotus pedestals, because the lotus is grown from the mud. The mud represents the stained world, a dirty world, but growing from the dirt is such a beautiful, pure thing. This is the way the spirit should be.