As part of its 40th anniversary, the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vermont commissioned me to create a permanent, interactive, environmental art piece. The result is a 1,000 sq. ft. dry stone and stainless steel sculpture that rises like a geologic upthrust from the open space alongside the museum entryway. Visitors can walk, climb and sit on the undulant surfaces of the work, or, simply view it on their way to, and from, the building.
Read MoreThe best two days in the life of a dry stone project are the first and the last. The first day is full of anticipation about how the great unknown will reveal itself. The course of the work has been formulated in the mind, but the process that will lead to an end only begins when an actual stone is laid. That initial stone sets in motion a chain-reaction of events, a series of choices that ultimately determine the character of the finished work.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreDespite 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.
Read MoreToday I’m transferring information from 60 pages of data onto a master plan for the stone-eye construction. Corner points in a grid of 6” squares are given numerical values that correspond to their position on the surface of the sculpture. The 32’ diameter sculpture will require more than 3,000 points-in-space to guide the construction.
Read MoreEvery new idea leads to an adventure. In the past when I’ve wanted to record and transfer “points-in-space” from a clay model to a full scale construction I’ve made a grid-style guide frame and physically measured the distance from the frame to the surface of the model. To build the horse eye sculpture I will need thousands of measurements on a 6”x6” grid. My new idea was to find someone who could digitally scan the model for the measurements I would need.
Read MoreMy next project is a piece of figurative sculpture in the landscape. It’s an art piece and a piece of utility. The dry stone construction will enclose a burial site on private property in north-central Vermont. A former horse pasture will be the site of a memorial in the shape of a horse’s eye. In phase 1, the shape will be open to the grave plots. In phase 2, to be completed at an unknown time in the future, the central portion will be covered over with a dry stone mound that will represent the iris of the eye. Completed, the crypt will be sealed by the polished pupil of a heavenward-gazing eye.
Read MoreWilliamsville is a village in the town of Newfane, Vermont, just three miles, as the crow flies, from my home in Dummerston. While we had little, or no, damage in our town from flooding in September, Irene devastated the Williamsville area. The Rock River rose 18’ above its normal level. A 200’ length of 5’ high dry stone retaining wall, built in the 19th century, as part of an extensive water-powered industrial site, was swallowed up in the torrent. When flood waters receded, the wall was no more. Only the largest stones escaped being swept downstream.
Read MoreTrick-or-treaters had the trick played on them this autumn when a pre-Halloween Nor’easter dropped a foot of snow on our area. Witches and goblins don’t usually have to scale snowbanks to ring doorbells. And I don’t expect my stone supplies to disappear under a blanket of white stuff in October. But after a short delay, the project I had scheduled for last week got underway and a 100’ length of “singling” was produced for Cochecho Country Club. This style of dry stone walling is well suited to a materials supply constituted of boulders. The stone was resurrected from the remnants of an old field wall. The wall line was reestablished and a crushed-stone base installed.
Read MoreWhen a favorite customer asked me if I would consider making an animal, any animal, out of dry stone last summer I immediately said, ‘yes’. Then the puzzling began. What animal shape could I fashion that would be recognizable, and also durable, using only dry stone techniques? It was especially important to the customer that children could climb on the completed piece. With a site in their field picked out as the location, I began thinking about possibilities.
Read MoreOften the fatigue that sets into a stone wall over time is caused by natural conditions. This weekend I noticed a piece of wall in Eastern Massachusetts that had been disrupted by the growth of a beech tree. The decorative border wall in the yard of an old farm house was completely subsumed by the ancient monarch. The age of the tree, well over 100 years, suggested that the wall is of an even greater age. To each side of the tree the wall has stood the test of time, remaining in good condition. The tree can be forgiven for displacing the stones, it has the right of long residence.
Read MoreThanks to Sunny Wieler from Ireland for the mention of Sky Watch on his recent stargazing in the garden article - and for telling me about these beautifully hand crafted garden telescopes - also from Vermont.
Read MoreThe road to a project’s completion is often a long and winding one. That’s why it’s worth taking time along the way to enjoy the view. The installation I’ll be doing at TICKON in Denmark later this summer began last year with an invitation from the art park to submit a proposal. Over the months, conversations and emails have taken the proposal through a series of development where I now feel that all the parts are in place to begin the work.
Read More5,000 years ago, in the land that is now Denmark, the dead were entombed in boulder chambers. Dolmens, as they are known to archaeologists, were once covered with earth mounds. Exposed by erosion and excavation, many are now visible on the landscape. I’m intrigued by these constructions. A three-boulder base supports a one-boulder roof. The simplest of forms proves to be the strongest and most durable. Dolmens, like the ones at Lindeskov, were reused over many centuries.
Read MoreMy interview on Vermont Public Radio is airing at noon today - most likely after the segment on under-age drinking parties.
Jane Lindholm visited me at work in Dummerston last week for a feature on this month's installment in Vermont Edition's "Visiting Artists" series. Click on VPR's Vermont Edition for more info.
Read MoreThis week I put in a couple days on a “subscription” wall. Every year the customer asks me to add another six yards to its length. They budget a set amount per year for stone work and I schedule it as I wish. This is the third year for this 2’x2’ construction. It follows the circuitous lawn edge at the brink of an embankment. The top line of the wall follows the undulant topography of the lawn. The longer it grows the wigglier it gets.
Read MoreYesterday, Professor Markku Hakuri took me for a train and bus ride to check out the site for my installation at the Kerava Art Museum. This morning I went ten miles outside of Helsinki to a look at gravel pit. A ‘tailings’ pile I found there has the right ingredients for making a piece that combines twelve hollow cones into a mound shape. Because a group of university art students will be helping me, it’s important that the stones be easily shifted and lifted by hand, and the cones and mound be definable with lines and guide frames. This afternoon I made a 3-D sketch in clay of the design I’ve been working on in my head for the past couple of days.
Read MoreThe lead up to most of my projects can take months of correspondence and cogitation. That’s alright with me because it allows time for my dreams and desires to grow and wither, or grow and flourish, as they will, before the first stone is picked up and put down. Now and then, an offer to do a project will pop up and within a matter of days things start to happen. Such was the case with this construction, begun yesterday and completed today. The stones, Monkton quartzite and Panton limestone, were leftovers from masonry work previously done on the home. The site was the back yard with a wide view of the Champlain Valley. The customer’s wish was to have a place to sit for stargazing.
Read More
