"What more fitting tribute to Nature can we find than to recycle our most obvious modern mechanical invention--the automobile--into a rebirth of sculpture that entwines with and honors Nature, and what better partner than Earth's most evident feature, that water which turns our globe into a beautiful glowing blue beacon in space? An elegantly simple match--a marriage really--that's the idea that finds expression in these water sculptures. They're a natural outgrowth, an expression of interests, experiences, and values that began in my childhood.

Ask yourself--what are my passions? What are those things that I really, really care about, that make my eyes gleam, that I love doing, experiencing, thinking about?  For me the answers are simple. I love teaching because I get to witness that look of...unguarded growth...in someone's eyes when they have just seen the world in a way they never had before.  I love the act of writing because it allows me to express and create knowledge, ideas, feelings...I love working, building, creating with my hands for the same reasons. I love the vitality of machines and mechanisms, be they Rube Goldberg-ish symphonies of motion, grand spectacles of might, or delicately complex intricacies, whether their purpose is to transform, inform, or simply to delight. And,  I cherish the gift of emotion, of being able to admire--to feel--beauty, energy, tranquility, laughter, curiosity.  These are some of the passions that motivate and guide my work with fountains."

Mark Worrell Pruett had the good fortune to be born into a family that possessed sufficient sense to be disturbed by his early fondness for power tools and propensity for disassembling household items, interests that ultimately resulted in a love for all things mechanical, particularly automotive. To divert and mold his young energies, his parents sought to distract him with a variety of ErectorSets, Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, and sundry do-it-yourself kits and experiences.  These did not, however, deter him as a child from secretly re-wiring the basement, field-testing dangerously flawed forms of transportation, or finding novel applications for his rudimentary knowledge of fuels and propellants.  Having inherited or acquired early a love of water, music, and art, his earliest memories of fountains are from across Europe, including the unique waterworks at Hellbrunn Castle in Austria.

Now a university professor with a PhD in management, he studies and teaches about innovation and competitive strategy.  With a classroom reputation as an energetic and demanding yet patient and relaxed professor, he relies on the Socratic method and thrives on active classroom discussions. Outside of work, his affections for water and machinery continue. An incompetent sailor and enthusiastic yet mediocre water-skier, he restores old cars and can operate a Caterpillar 953 with reasonable facility.