Published by Joe Gillach under Renewable Energy, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Products

Chef Boyardee makes serviceable spaghetti-in-a-can. And Chun King’s version of tinned chow mein may also suffice for those who have never tasted the real thing in an authentic ethnic restaurant.

But once a diner has sampled authentic cuisine made on the spot by a talented culinary artist, he or she is unlikely to return to the grocery shelf version. There’s just too much missing; the real thing always stands out, and dwarfs the pale-by-comparison, mass-produced competition.

I had a comparable moment of joy when I first saw the lyrically beautiful solar landscape lights from Qnuru. Available products on the market seem ungainly and—let’s face it—homely next to Qnuru’s.

The company’s designs by acclaimed Southwest sculptor Tom Joyce are a breath of fresh air—especially compared to the usual run of commodity solar outdoor lighting. With last week’s launch of Santa Fe-based Qnuru, we now know what’s possible in sustainable outdoor lighting.

I will admit that I am not a totally unbiased reviewer; I sit on the Advisory Board of venture firm Noribachi, one of Qnuru’s financial backers and also an investor in Green By Design. But judge for yourself—I think you’ll agree that these functional works of art prove that outdoor solar lighting has finally emerged from the ugly duckling to the beautiful swan stage.

Fusing Joyce’s design talent and metalworking skills with solar technology is a stroke of genius. His sculptures are found in museums and private collections around the world and have been exhibited at the Smithsonian, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Museum of Applied Arts in Moscow, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. In 2003, he was inducted into the American Craft Council’s College of Fellows and was also awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

These are no small achievements for man who dropped out of high school to become a blacksmith, having begun his career at age 14 forging horseshoes, farm implements, and door hinges. These humble beginnings in the practical world are what serve him now at the intersection of form, function, and high art.

With Qnuru, Joyce is able to combine his talents as a sculptor who truly understands how art can uplift public spaces, with his long-held passion for the environment and nature. To create a family of solar landscape fixtures, he marries honed granite, forged or cast iron and aluminum with cutting-edge solar technology, integrating energy collection, power storage, and microprocessor-based control systems.

Everything about Qnuru is artful, beginning with the name Qnuru (pronounced kuh-NOO-roo)—which, Joyce explains, evolved from nuru, the Swahili word for light and Q for the quality of—as in the inherent nature of—light.

The products themselves are elegant sculptures of great beauty even aside from their solar capabilities. And the granite used for the Turnabout is sourced from China, where they are hand-carved by a family of master stone masons.

Qnuru’s products aren’t simply artistic breakthroughs—they are actually as intelligent as they are beautiful. Beneath their high-impact (hail-proof) translucent lenses, the lighting fixtures house high-output LED illuminators, advanced technology for day/night sensing and motion sensing, dimmers, timers and clocks, and power-conserving capabilities for cloudy days.

Today, the company makes high-end products for use in public spaces such as parks, libraries, hospitals, civic centers, museums, schools, condominium complexes, and corporate campuses, as well as for upscale residential customers. The six light fixtures—named Turnabout, Talus, Talus Bollard, Switchback, Cumuli and Aquila—are made to order for delivery within 4-12 weeks with prices starting at $1,500. To place an order, contact Qnuru.

Qnuru’s next generation of products will be aimed at mainstream consumers. What designer Michael Graves is to Target, Joyce is destined to become in the field of landscape lighting.

I love the Turnabout for its Zen-like simplicity; it’s a perfect cloven sphere made of blue-gray or beige granite. But I am equally intrigued by the idea of hanging the cloud-shaped Cumuli over my back deck, where I can envision it casting a beautiful glow for those warm summer nights of backyard BBQs. My newly discerning eye tells me that every public plaza I pass through would benefit from the energy savings and gracefulness of Qnuru lighting.

To signal its commitment to environmental causes, Qnuru is auctioning a Turnabout solar light for Waterkeeper Alliance. Go to Charity Buzz to bid online, starting today through April 30, 2009.

Joyce is characteristically modest about his accomplishment in starting Qnuru and designing its debut collection, just as he is about his three decades of work as an increasingly celebrated artist. He believes that artists have an obligation to marry art and commerce, where practical, for the benefit of consumers.

To that end, he is toying with the idea of opening up Qnuru to other designers, inviting them to become artists-in-residence and design their own solar-powered lines of light fixtures.

Whether you see Tom Joyce’s designs as art first or function first is up to you. But it’s clear that the art world embraces these groundbreaking products. James Kelly Contemporary, a Santa Fe gallery, will be debuting Qnuru’s solar lighting from May 15 to June 14, 2009, and San Francisco’s Braunstein / Quay Gallery will be offering the West Coast debut from August 27 to September 11, 2009.