Woodcut Reverie

The imagery I drew on for the woodcut depicted the recently built sculpture, a slate floor that I designed and laid for our host, and a bird's eye view of the surrounding islands. Bordering the three scenes was a pattern adapted from a rug in the cottage where we stayed. The print extended my relationship to the land art beyond the time I spent making it. And it was a purely personal artwork produced in a manner that harkened back to my earliest artistic strivings. Sometimes the best direction forward is discovered by going back.

Stone Forever Leads the Way

It started for me with the rejuvenation of those original turnpike walls. By the second year on the property I was designing and building a circular sunken garden space next to the house under construction. One wall section reached 11’ in height. During the third trip around the sun the site saw more dry stone walls rise around a greenhouse and attendant herb and vegetable gardens.

Sike Stones

A cyclorama (sike) for Mission Farm was conceived as a companion piece to the Odeon constructed in 2023. The seating space of walls and terraces on the hillside called out for a response from the presentation area. If the Odeon was a half-shell, a sike would complete the circle. A sike so close to the north side of the stone church would need to assert itself but not be overbearing. It would need to have textural compatibility with the Odeon but not simply be an enlargement of its footprint.

The Stone Hive

Maybe it comes from experience, or maybe it is innate, but I do have a nose for stone. Time and again I stumble upon obscure sources of loose stone if I just start wandering around. The talent, if it can be called that, extends to moments during the walling day when a particularly sized and shaped stone is required for a spot on the wall. Without it being in sight, I will ferret into a stock pile to immediately come up with the hidden gem, waiting just below the surface.

In the Company of Stone

Before 2023 gets too distant in the rear-view mirror, now’s a good time to catch a reflection of the year’s activities. I was joined on the 2023 constructions by a number of wonderful client partners, collaborators and dry stone professionals. All gave it their all, and I can’t thank them enough.

Stone Endeavors

Readers may well wonder “What’d it take?” when viewing images of the sunken garden space and surrounding hardscape I built last fall in Marlboro, Vermont. It was work done with skill, efficiency and pride, by me and a handful of compatriots. As with other stone endeavors, it required the marshaling of materials, equipment and craft.

Self-Archeology in a Stone Environment

The most enjoyable takeaway from examining a wall that has remained true is a validation of the beliefs held while bringing it into being. Dry stone walling is about action in the moment but the results take a while to be proven out. The labor of building is lightened by seeing how honest effort ultimately endures.

Stone Puzzling

A stone wall builder creates the puzzle as they complete it. The way each piece is picked and positioned answers an immediate question and offers up a new one. Every choice invites another. Action in the moment reduces the work ahead while increasing the choices to be made. Though the labor is demanding, it’s tempered by the gifts brought by doing it. Many small satisfactions weld themselves into the gratification of a desire to complete the picture of a stone wall settled into its place on the land.