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DAN SNOW STONEWORKS

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The Odeon Amphitheater

The Odeon Amphitheater

Over the years, experience taught me that not all my ideas work, but that the most risky ones, when they did, turned out to be the most rewarding. If I wanted the Odeon to be something special, I had to have faith. Architectural details from the church have informed the Odeon’s design. A seating arrangement of granite slabs, their surfaces speckled with iridescent mica like the church’s facade, are set atop retaining walls built in a matrix style that emulates that of faceted, stained-glass windows.

Dry Stone Tour: Hidden in the Hills

Dry Stone Tour: Hidden in the Hills

The Stone Trust leads a tour of notable stone walls and other dry stone structures as part of BMAC’s “Hidden in the Hills” series. The tour will begin and end at The Stone Trust, located at Scott Farm in Dummerston, Vermont. Participants will begin with a short walking tour at The Stone Trust, followed by a guided tour of nearby stone structures. Amy-Louise Pfeffer, Executive Director of The Stone Trust, and I will host the event. Come and enjoy.

Stone Stitches Past to Present

Stone Stitches Past to Present

Craft skills typically used for making something new are also practiced to repair something old. Many a waller has cut their teeth in the trade by rebuilding broken gaps in old fence lines. Mending a section of dilapidated, dry stone wall is a form of stitchery, too. When done with respect for what's been accomplished by others in the past, repairs can feel like a partnership that's taken place over centuries.

Recess in the School of Hard Rocks

Recess in the School of Hard Rocks

Hours and days of grinding labor culminate in a finished structure but somehow it’s the intermissions in the process that are remembered, the many cracks of light that shine through the monolith of physical exertion that is dry stone walling.

Working Stone Together

Working Stone Together

Every project has the treasure of time locked inside. The key to spending it wisely is to embrace the unknowns. Seek out and dwell on every moment’s mystery and the day’s toil will pass in a flash.

Dry Stone, Dry Stone Walling, Stone, GardenDan SnowDecember 28, 2021dan snow, dan snow stone, dan snow art, dan snow craft, dan snow artworks, dan snow stoneworks, stone, stonework, stoneworker, stoneworks, stonewall, dry stone, dry stone wall, dry stone walling, dry stone constructions, dry stone sculpture, dry stone art, free stone, art, artist, sculpture, sculptor, handcraft, handcrafter, art worker, craft, land art, contemporary art, art in nature, nature, nature art, art installation, outdoor art, in the company of stone, listening to stone, the solitary stoneworker, willowbank, willowbank walls, charlotte vermont, vermont, Church Hill Landscapes, Birdseye Builders, Miranda Brooks Landscape Design, G.P. Schafer Architect, Whitney Brown, Joe Dinwiddie, Gabriel Dark, Jared Flynn, Curtis Gray, Bryce Hollingsworth, Dan Morales-Walsh, Dave Inman, Black River Quarries, Allstone Wallstone

A Wander Back In Time Imaginable

A Wander Back In Time Imaginable

I was invited to talk to the assembled guests about the built landscape. We led the group through the lush gardens, pausing to tell stories and answer questions. Any puzzlement on the faces of the visitors was completely understandable. Half of what we described was fiction; a historical ruse amplified by the very real existence of the dry stone curiosities I constructed there.

A Dusty Stone Ensemble: Team Rockus in Vermont

A Dusty Stone Ensemble: Team Rockus in Vermont

By expanding my repertoire to include other skilled practitioners of the craft I can now see how there’s nothing lost and much to be gained. The satisfaction of successfully completing a piece is shared by all, without any one having to do it all.

Dry Stone Walling, Dry Stone, Garden, StoneDan SnowAugust 5, 2021dan snow, dan snow stone, dan snow art, dan snow craft, dan snow artworks, dan snow stoneworks, stone, stonework, stoneworker, stoneworks, stonewall, dry stone, dry stone wall, dry stone walling, dry stone constructions, dry stone sculpture, dry stone art, free stone, art, artist, sculpture, sculptor, handcraft, handcrafter, art worker, craft, land art, contemporary art, art in nature, nature, nature art, art installation, outdoor art, in the company of stone, listening to stone, the solitary stoneworker, willowbank, willowbank walls, church hill landscapes, birdseye, whitney brownstone, whitney brown, dry stone joe, joe dinwiddie, vtstone, jared flynn, gabriel dark, darkstone new england, stonebear mason, bryce hollingsworth, curtis-gray-stonemason, maine stone scapes, dan morales-walsh, dave inman, vermont

Imagining in Stone

Imagining in Stone

Since I’ve only been on the receiving end of interview questions I don’t know how they’re properly crafted but I can tell when they have been. A good interviewer opens a door and asks the subject to step into their own world. I was pleased to be asked by Tom Christopher to be interviewed for his podcast Growing Greener.

Fortified Rock Slope

Fortified Rock Slope

It was a simple enough question. How will excavation equipment get to the front of the house? That was the location of the intended project, but because of the side-hill terrain, it was a case of “you can’t get there from here.”

Stone Wall History In The Re-Making

Stone Wall History In The Re-Making

A new client had a thorny issue in the form of a failing structure in a problematic location on their property. The home, a mid-century modern perched on a small plateau on the western flank of Mt. Peg in Woodstock, Vermont relied on a stone wall to retain a yard and garden. Without it, stepping out the front door would have put the homeowner back in time to when the site was a launch pad for the community toboggan run.

Stoneworks Spring Newsletter

Stoneworks Spring Newsletter

The world has gone aswirl in recent weeks, turning upside down and sideways like the colored bits inside a kaleidoscope. In these uncertain times, stay connected with hand-crafting traditions. Reach for the next best grip by trusting in the reality communicated through the fingertips. It links directly to the heart and mind with no translation required. Take care, and when you can, get some stone in your hands.

The Rock Shelter

The Rock Shelter

Rock Shelter is an environmental artwork that pays tribute to the materials it’s made from and the place it resides. The sculpture stands unpretentiously on the verge of a Vermont hayfield; a solitary figure with its back to the wind and face lifted to the low winter sun. The only perceivable change in the work since its creation is the mottled patina that’s grown over it.

A Gathering of Stone

A Gathering of Stone

Besides being an advocate for the plant kingdom, New York Botanical Garden offers programs in horticulture, education, and science. It’s grown and managed a 250-acre garden in the heart of New York City for 128 years. Being an advocate of the mineral kingdom, I was delighted to be invited to speak on behalf of rocks at such an august institution.

Rokeby Artist Lab

Rokeby Artist Lab

This year, Rokeby Museum announced the launch of a new partnership with Kasini House designed to engage contemporary artists as interpreters of the museum’s unique history. Ric Kasini Kadour, Curator and Project Director of Contemporary Art at Rokeby Museum, invited the artist team of Dan Snow Stoneworks (Elin and Dan) to a series of workshops and discussions designed to foster the integration of history and contemporary art into an artist’s practice. We joined ten other artists from around the U.S. and Canada at the museum last month for four days of thought-provoking research and an exercise in project development.

Environmental Art, Dry Stone, Art, Land Art, NatureDan SnowOctober 27, 2019dan snow, dan snow stone, dan snow art, dan snow craft, dan snow artworks, dan snow stoneworks, stone, stonework, stoneworker, stoneworks, stonewall, dry stone, dry stone wall, dry stone walling, dry stone constructions, dry stone sculpture, dry stone art, free stone, art, artist, sculpture, sculptor, handcraft, handcrafter, art worker, craft, environmental art, land art, art in nature, nature, nature art, art installation, outdoor art, rokeby museum, rokeby artist lab, contemporary art, historic museums, kasini house, ric kasini kadour, stone weirs, Capt. James, Josephine Lee, Skyler Maggiore, Patricia Tewes, Jeanne Ciravolo, Wylie Garcia, Nancy Winship Milliken, Carole d'Inverno, Carol ES MacDonald, Courtney Clinton, Erika Senft Miller, Dafna Steinberg

Outdoor Art at Shelburne Museum

Outdoor Art at Shelburne Museum

Movement is critical for getting into the moment, for being of a time and in a place. Perhaps the best thing an artist can offer a viewer is the chance to become a little more aware of themselves. Outdoor art spaces hold the potential for that to happen.

A recent special event at the Shelburne Museum drew a large crowd on a perfect summer evening. I was there to welcome visitors to Fantasy Topography, my temporary, environmental art installation in a pine grove on the grounds. It was great to see lots of people walking around and in the sculpture. Many thanks to those who stopped by to chat, and to the staff for all they do to make an enjoyable time for those attending the museum’s once-a-month, Free Friday.

Stone Walls Grow Value

Stone Walls Grow Value

Most of the works done in the dry stone trade take place without fanfare. They serve basic needs by establishing boundaries, buttressing slopes and moderating ascents. They’re experienced as well-functioning while being hardly noticed. In fact, one sign of a successful new project is that those using it feel that it must have always been there. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be a sight to behold. Functional stonework can be arrestingly beautiful, often the more so with age. Stonework, done right, proves its worth day after day, year after year. The expense is left behind while the value continues forward.

A Stone Livestock Pound

A Stone Livestock Pound

What was the first public structure built to safeguard harmony in early agricultural communities? Who were the hog reeves and why were they sometimes recently married, young men? What did impecunious pound-brechers do to deserve 30 lashes? These questions and more will be answered during a program I’ll be giving at the Dummerston Historical Society’s quarterly meeting Thursday July 18th at 7:30 pm. I hope you’ll join me for an evening exploring the history of Dummerston’s town pound and take a walk around the dry stone pound, erected ten years ago, next to the Historical Society building.

Length In: Developing a Frame of Mind in Dry Stone Walling

Length In: Developing a Frame of Mind in Dry Stone Walling

A belief set in the mind of many beginner dry stone wallers is that a wall is what it looks like on the outside, when it actually is what is not seen, on the inside. To accept a wall stone at face value is to believe that what shows is most of what that stone is, but in a well built wall, most is concealed, securely trapped inside the construction.