Art of the Outdoors

My classmate, Hass, and I were standing on a rooftop on the lower west side of Manhattan watching a dance performance taking place in a vacant lot across the street when he nudged me and whispered, “That’s Robert Smithson.” The tall guy to my left at the parapet, in a cowboy hat and black trench coat, was solemnly staring down at the ground, along with a couple dozen other bohemes of the downtown art scene who had climbed four flights of rickety stairs in a derelict, cheese warehouse to view the show.

Pumpkin Seed Winter Garden (what I did on my winter vacation)

There’s a certain satisfaction in doing something yourself that can’t be achieved in any other way. It’s not that other satisfactions have less strength or value, they’re just different. Each and every stone laid in the creation of the Pumpkin Seed garden enclosure passed through my hands. I say that with pride but also in the full knowledge that a team of wallers under my direction and following my design could have built the structure to a high standard without my lifting a finger. So, for me, it’s not the final result that distinguishes the piece, it’s the process I went through in the past few months to get it there. The daily figuring-out of what needs to happen next and how to get it done under the prevailing field conditions is what the Seed is made of in my mind’s eye.

The Zig Zag Wall Takes a Final Turn

The zig-zag wall at Hogpen Farms has taken its final turn. Five entrance/exit ramps provide communication with the elevated wall top. A path, wide enough for a person and a dog to pass each other along its length, weaves its way across a forest glade.

ArtDan SnowMarch 23, 2012art, art and nature park, connecticut, dry stone walling, edward tufte, et modern, installation, project, stone

The Tarriance

I’m pleased to announce that my competition proposal to create a sculpture on the grounds of Central Oregon Community Collegehas been selected by the Art Acquisitions Committee. The 201-acre Bend campus, with views of the beautiful Cascade mountains, has been growing since the 1960’s. Over 18,000 students are enrolled at COCC this academic year. This is my first stone art commission west of the Rockies. I’m very excited to be creating a piece in, of and for the great Northwest.

Light and Shadow Boxed in Stone

Another spurt of mild weather found me back in Connecticut for more work on Hogpen Hill. Chuck, Jared, Matt and Brian joined me in continuing the walling events begun on the previous visit, three weeks ago, and in starting something new. Edward Tufte’s thinking about what he’d like done on his land evolves as the work progresses. Derelict portions of old agricultural fence are being removed and replaced with dry stone features that introduce new elements of light and shadow to their lengths. The traditional concept of a wall creating a barrier between spaces is turned inside out.

Stone Eye Guiding Grid

Despite temperatures in the 20’s Fahrenheit and a steady north wind, progress continued this week on the stone eye sculpture. The guide frame and 6” grid are in place, waiting now for a day warm enough to allow bare fingers to function properly for hanging the lines and weights that will establish the ‘points in space’ needed to begin the stone construction.

Dan SnowDecember 21, 2011dry stone, grid, guide frame, installation, morrisville, project, stone, stone eye, vermont

Stone Eye Sculpture Site Preparations

On site in Morrisville, I outlined the piece with sticks and ribbon to get a sense of its presence on the land, began excavation and finished the foundation work. The stonework will rest on a 3’ deep base of crushed stone. When completed, the sculpture will enclose two burial plots. The addition of a sand-filled,wood coffer will allow the second grave to be easily hand-dug at a future date.

Dan SnowDecember 15, 2011installation, morrisville, sculpture, site preparation, stone, stone eye, vermont

TICKON Diamond Mines Land Art

“Diamond Mines” is an abstract, site-specific sculpture built of loose, natural stone. The work is situated on westward-sloping ground in a grove of mature beech trees. Wooded hills rise to the north and south. Park paths wind along the west and north sides of the sculpture. To the west, Tranekær lake and castle can be viewed. ‘Diamond’ is the perimeter, outline shape of the sculpture. The shapes of the nineteen interior facets are also diamond. There are a total of eighty-five obtuse and acute angles in the sculpture. The stones are set on their near-vertical axis in the construction, pointing up and down in the wall faces. In “Diamond Mines” there are diamonds within diamonds within a diamond.

TICKON Diamond Mines

The building of “Diamond Mines” was a delightful experience due to the many wonderful people who helped make it possible. Thanks go to my new Danish friends; Alfio, Lone, Ole, Birthe and Trine. To on-site workers Francesca and Jared goes my grateful appreciation. Always behind the scenes and in the middle of it all was Elin, who supported me in every moment and was my guiding light at every turn.

TICKON Diamond Mines in the News

Earlier this week, the local Fyn newspaper stopped by the TICKON site for an interview. Hopefully the article will be available online within a few days. For now - a couple of photos.

TICKON Sculpture Installation Completed

This song, from Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris’s “All the Roadrunning” album, makes a good anthem for those of us who grub our living out of the ground. We stone workers labor to lift something special from the earth. Our efforts are mainly brutish and blunt but we continue day by day in the belief that something beautiful will arise in the end. When it finally does, the light of what we’ve created shines briefly before for us. And then we must turn our backs and leave it all behind.

TICKON - Working at the Diamond Mines

About once an hour, or so, someone walks by the site and asks me what I’m doing. Often they wonder if I am repairing something. I’ve been told the piece looks like a temple, fishponds, and human tissue under a microscope. “How long before it’s finished?” and, “What’s it called?” are the common follow-up questions after they hear I’m building a new abstract sculpture for TICKON art-park. I can now say that it will be finished in a few days, and that the piece is called “The Diamond Mines.” It’s been a rare experience for me; spending these past weeks in a grove of stately old beach trees. Plus, daily visits from Elin, and picnics with her Danish family, have quickly turned this project into an all-time personal favorite.

TICKON - Diamond Mines Discovered in Tranekær Castle Park

Working hands inform thought and awaken understanding of the art builder's place in the natural world. Undulant lines and patterned spaces are the result of many choices made by the art builder who recognizes, and utilizes, the unique character of stone. The presentation will examine the many uses of stone in art; how stone can support a design, or simply be the art itself. It will also explore the "give and take" experience of working in nature, and the connection to spirit expressed through stone.

Markku Hakuri and Friends at Kerava - Goodbye to the Hole In The Universe (Reika Avaruudessa)

Sculptor Markku “The General” Hakuri marshaled a merry band of art lovers in the destruction of the pieces he exhibited in the Kerava Art Museum this summer. The closing ceremony of the show included a parade of dismantled sculpture parts and their burning in a bonfire. After the fire died down we proceeded to tumble my sculpture “Wishing Wells”. From its conception, my piece was destined to be removed at the end of the show, so, we had a fun time pulling out stones and watching the well walls cascade to the ground. Most delightful was the musical sound made by the downpour of cobbles.

Finland - Mushroom Hunting and the End of the Reikä Avaruudessa Exhibit

This weekend I hopped over to Helsinki, Finland from Denmark to join in the closing celebration of Kerava Art Museum’s summer exhibition. Back in May I made two pieces for the show. The works of all the artists come down today, and because some of them, like mine, are meant to be destroyed at the end of the exhibit we will have a ceremonial bonfire outside the museum. In the meantime, I’ve enjoyed a day spent in the woods hunting mushrooms. Kaani and Markku took me to a forest where we had good luck gathering. Back at their house we cleaned our catch of black hornpipes for drying, and cooked up a pan of chanterelles for omelets.

TICKON Installation Past the Halfway Mark

The TICKON installation is past the halfway mark thanks to the help of Alfio Bonnano and Ole Johnsen who have coordinated all the logistics of tools and materials, plus, made us feel at home away from home. On site, Francesca and Jared have put in long hours raising the walls of the piece that will soon be the newest addition to the art park. Elin has been busy orchestrating the myriad details of working and living away from Vermont, and documenting the process and progress of the installation.

TICKON Art Park

From the glacier fed streams of Norway’s Jotunheimen mountains, I’ve traveled this past week to the low, wetlands of Denmark. In fact, I’m living in a 300 year-old house alongside a castle moat. This is the artist’s residence for TICKON, the environmental art park I’ll be working in for the next month. Yesterday 20 tons of stone was gathered from field piles and delivered by the tractor-wagon load to the site of my construction. Today the outline of the work will be established and guide frames erected.

The Kerava Art Museum - Reika Avaruudessa

The trees in the parks of Helsinki were beginning to show signs of awakening from their winter sleep when I arrived here early May. Today, my last day in Finland on this trip, they are flush with lush green leaves. I leave behind good friends, old and new. It’s been an exciting few weeks of city life. The Kerava Art Museum exhibition is now open to the public until August 28 when the artist’s pieces will be dismantled and moved, or recycled. I’m pleased with the way my two works came out. ‘L.E.M.’ is the small stone and steel construction displayed inside the museum in partnership with Tristan Hamel’s silk-paper globe. Outside, ‘Wishing Wells’ invites museum-goers and passer-by’s to walk through and around its canyons and cavities.