Bill Vazan began his career as a painter, but since the late 1960s has used a wide variety of media to explore the connection between human beings and the natural world. Vazan draws his visual language from a number of sources, including ancient symbols and petroglyphs and contemporary science. Vazan has achieved international recognition for his conceptual and land-oriented artwork, and has created major projects and installations in Egypt, Israel, Korea, Peru, Japan, China and France.

The Three Observed is one of a series of works using natural, found boulders. Since the late 1980s, Vazan has developed these works in a granite quarry north of Kingston, near Tamworth, Ontario. Using a sandblaster as a router, Vazan incises graphic forms and lines into the surface to give expression to his intuitively discerned perception of the deeper character of the stone. The sculpture fuses natural form with imagery borrowed from ancient traditions to suggest a unifying energy permeating matter and human culture.