Rock Art's work has won international acclaim from Hewlett-Packard and Canon Corporation in Japan. The 1993 project celebrated the production of the 10-millionth laser printer produced in cooperation by HP and Canon, who makes the engines for HP's laser printers. The projects included stones for the Hewlett Packard Boise, Idaho campus and Canon's campus in Japan. Forty-five cherry trees were planted at HP's Boise, Idaho campus as a gift from Canon Inc.

Below are excerpts of an article from the Idaho Statesman along with images of the project.

"After a futile search in Japan for artists who could carve stone to his liking, the head of Canon Inc. Dr. Hijame Mitarai turned to two Boise stone carvers, John and Catherine Englund of Rock Art. The Englunds and Mitarai first met at the ceremony in Boise where the Englunds had carved three heavy stones to commemorate the event. The craftsmanship of the work impressed Mitarai and other officials who saw the stones.

After a three-month search, Canon couldn't find anyone whose work could compare to Rock Arts, so they asked Rock Art to produce the stones for the Japan location. The largest stone, with an inscription in Japanese, weighs 2,300 pounds and has a birdbath carved into the top. The two smaller stones weight about 1,000 pounds each and have planters, flowers and birds carved into them. The three stones that were shipped to Japan symbolize the ties and cooperation between Hewlett-Packard and Canon Inc.

All the stones are made of Mojave sandstone and required 350 man-hours to produce. Custom made shipping crates had to be made for each stone before they were flown to Japan for installation.

The largest stone has an inscription in Japanese that basically says "Hewlett-Packard and Canon have come across oceans to prosper in one world". It makes reference to the ceremony and an exchange of trees between the companies. Canon Inc. was so impressed with the quality of the stones produced by Rock Art they renamed one of the streets on its Tokyo campus to "Boise".

The work was technically very difficult. Using standard methods of shaping the stones with jackhammers and chisels, the designs were carefully produced and the blasting to cut the designs into the stones was painstakingly executed. Even a little wobble cutting the design could totally change the meaning of a word in Japanese so great care was taken to ensure the accuracy of the work."

Rock Art is very proud to have been selected to produce these commemorative stones symbolizing the cooperation between two countries and corporations with diverse cultures.

Click on any of the photos to view a full size image.