Columbia. Mo. ? Allan and Elizabeth Burdick live in a garden.

Their Columbia home – constructed of cypress wood and stone and surrounded by white oak, pine and sassafras trees – is a work of art on its own.

It was built in 1975 in the spirit of a Japanese teahouse, Allan says. Stone steps lead to the “Dancing Torso,” which greets visitors outside the front door. The weathered bronze was cast by Columbia sculptor Sabra Tull Meyer in 1982.

The Burdicks are friends of Meyer’s and fans of her work. Meyer, who has been working as a sculptor since 1976, has been working on figures for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Monument in Jefferson City. Many of her bronze works are in public places as well. Her statues and busts are on view at the Capitol, at the University of Missouri and at Columbia’s Courthouse Square, to name a few venues. One of Meyer’s bronze eagles greets visitors on the path to the Bistro at Le Bourgeois Vineyards in Rocheport.

Meyer’s “Dancing Torso” suits the natural beauty at the entry of the Burdick home. The front door of the Burdicks’ home opens to another garden. Inside, a “genkan,” or raised walkway, runs around a perimeter of the room of plants and rock paths.

Allan and Elizabeth Burdick stand outside their home in Columbia, Mo. Their home, constructed of cypress wood and stone, and surrounded by white oak, pine and sassafras trees, is a work of art on its own.

Branching out

There are no halls in Japanese homes, Allan says, so the deck serves as a path to all the rooms that branch out from the garden. The garden room’s under-floor is filled 9 feet deep with rock, which is topped with a layer of soil, says Allan, who fell in love with Japanese architecture and gardens after spending a year in Japan.

Thriving chefelara and ficus trees touch the 8-by-8-foot, double-paneled skylights. Elizabeth regularly prunes the trees at the bottom so the sculpture and art in the room are not obscured.

“I want to sit in my living room, look across the garden and see the art,” she says.

She also must keep the floor of philodendron trimmed to keep the pebble trail open for exploring grandchildren. Neanthe Bella palms and a Chinese palm add additional sculptural dimension to the garden.

Family influence

The Burdicks have been collecting art for 50 years. They knew each other for many years as friends, married to other spouses. After their spouses passed on, their friendship grew into marriage. In 1983, Elizabeth moved from Indiana to Allan’s home in Columbia. They united their art collections and their families.

A three-dimensional painting titled The

Their children, now grown, total seven. Photographs of families, including 14 grandchildren, are displayed on a table in the living room, overlooking the garden. Sometimes the character of a family can influence the nature of the art that is chosen. In the center of the garden, for instance is “Trimony,” a polyester, resin and metal piece by Gary Wojcik.

“It has a bent-wing approach,” Elizabeth says, reminding her that both of her husbands were in the Air Force. “Our children are runners,” she says. So, off to one side of the garden, “Summer Fun Runners” are frozen mid-stride in plastic-coated terra cotta pieces. Mike Schick of Springfield constructed the whimsical pair.

‘In-your-face work’

The walls across the garden are lined with artwork, including an op-art painting that truly pops out. “Tez” was painted by the “father of op art,” Victor Vasarely. To the right, a couple stares straight ahead, clearly detached from one another, as they watch TV in a three-dimensional painting called “The Watchers” by Harland Gaudy.

In the living room of Allan and Elizabeth Burdick, the artwork sits among a garden of philodendrums, shephoaras and Chinese fan palms.

Among the most provocative sculptures in the garden collection is a dark, in-your-face work guarding the entry of the garden.

A fearsome-looking motorcycle rider and his passenger in a sidecar don gas masks and aim their grease guns toward the front door. The 1969, Vietnam War-era sculpture – made of welded metal, wood, epoxy polyester and Naugahyde by John Balsley – is titled “American Summer Sunday Landscape.” In the late ’60s, Elizabeth and her first husband met Balsley at an art show in her hometown of Lafayette, Ind. Someone at the show remarked, “Can you imagine that in your living room?”

Not just for museums

Elizabeth and her first husband decided that they could, and they bought the piece.

Elizabeth thinks that looking at art as part of a home helps people to see that art is not only for museums, she says.