The two greatest influences on DeWain Valentine's work are the sky and the sea, evident in "Diamond Column," a fountain he designed for the California State University, Fullerton Visual Arts Center.

"The inspiration for the fountain grew out of a desire to sculpt a piece of the ocean or actually come as close as possible to carving out a section of the sea," Valentine said.

Built in 1980, Diamond Column is constructed of 11 tons of hand-cut laminated glass, set parallel in a granite base. Water is pumped up between each individual piece of glass and flows down the outside to a recirculating pump, creating the illusion of a wall of water. The piece also uses more than 100 tons of concrete, steel, bronze tubing and granite.

Valentine actually completed the fountain three times. The first version had a concrete base that proved unsatisfactory—water leeched from the ground up between the panes. A pane on the second version, which had a black marble base, cracked. The third version was finished with a granite base.