Stone and Art in Nature

January 10, 2012 Dan Snow

I will be giving a talk at the ET Modern Gallery in NYC in February. Here is the announcement. With thanks to Edward Tufte for the invitation to give a talk. Hope to see you there.
ET MODERN GALLERY
547 West 20th Street, (corner of 11th Avenue) NYC, NY
FEBRUARY 25, 2012 at 2 pm

STONE AND ART IN NATURE
Vermont stone art builder Dan Snow will give a talk about outdoor art installation, the process of its creation and long-term integration into nature. The presentation includes images of Snow’s and other environmental artists’ work.

Poet Wendell Berry advises those who practice his craft to “make poems that don’t disturb the silence from which they come.” The same suggestion could be made to the builders of environmental art because their work is often performed in places that are already perfectly at peace.

Creators of outdoor art risk disturbing an existing balance when they go to work on the land. Artists in the environment might achieve their finest work by doing nothing more than pointing out the facts of what is already there. But then again, that may be work best left to poets.

Three-dimensional artists engage the physical world spatially, and the spatial world physically. In “Song of Myself”, Walt Whitman expressed a sentiment shared today by environmental art makers; “Earth! you seem to look for something at my hands.” We can’t help getting our hands dirty when our hearts open to a place on earth.