Keeper of the Garden

Johns grew up in rural Ohio and developed an early interest in making things with his hands. "At age thirteen, I completed my first carving of a pig with a very dull pocketknife and a piece of buckeye. Over the years, I gained experience by endlessly experimenting with many types of wood and subject matter. As an artist, I am largely self-taught." Carving stone has also been a natural curiosity for him. Using Indiana limestone, his indoor and outdoor sculptures are both large and small-scale, and include personalized commissions.Hand-carved Indiana limestone - 52 inches high (2 pieces) This sculpture was placed in the First Financial Bank High Street Garden in November, 2004, with a formal dedication held on April 22, 2005. Cincinnati Sculptor, Daryl Johns has thirty years of carving experience. Keeper of the Garden originated in my feeling that every garden has a superior being overseeing all of the wonders that emerge from the earth. This sculpture attempts to represent that being.