Guardian Stone, Puryear’s first large-scale work made entirely out of granite, was constructed from multiple pieces of stone that were carved by hand to achieve the gentle curves of the form that the artist envisioned: the shape of a head and neck in abstraction. This process model served a functional role in the work’s fabrication. The 1/10th scale painted wood maquette was cut into eighteen pieces, which were then traced and enlarged to ten times their original scale to serve as templates for the industrial stone carvers with whom Puryear collaborated.