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 - Sourcing Tools, Stone and Equipment in Langeland

It took me a few days to ‘get’ TICKON’s method of operation but I can now appreciate it for its full value. The art park owns no tools or equipment. Everything needed to produce a new installation is gathered piecemeal from community members in the surrounding villages. So, for the first few days of my project I rode around the countryside with Ole each morning popping in on local folk to have a chat. We explained what the project was, and what we were looking for. Eventually the tools and materials came together. In the process, more and more people became involved in the project. They have helped to create a new art work at TICKON. “Mange tak” to all those who have made me feel welcome in the Kommune of Langeland.

TICKON - Fieldstone and Hearting

While the supply was drying out I began setting up batter frames. Each board describes an inside corner of the construction. Because the wall intersections are many different obtuse and acute angles, each board is set to correspond to the intersection angle and to the wall batter. The wall batter is 2.5” in every 12” of vertical height. Work on the piece begins at the center and moves out toward the perimeter as progress is made over the next few weeks.

Dry Stone Cairns in Norway

The previous post elicited a question from a reader about the dry stone cairn in the top photo. It’s a trail marker, one of hundreds found alongside the old routes in Norway for crossing the high country from one valley community to another. They are spaced approximately 50 meters apart to help guide those traveling in fog, snow or low light conditions. The pine poles atop them may be all that’s visible in a sea of winter white.

Dry Stone Walling, Nature, Stone, TravelDan SnowAugust 17, 2011norway, stone, stone cairns

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.

Lillehammer Art Museum Sculptured Garden

Continuing on the subject of sculpture gardens, here’s a nice example I saw yesterday outside the Art Museum in Lillehammer, Norway. Created in 1992 by Bard Breivik, the sculptured garden is a cascade of stone and water. It begins serenely on flat ground at the height of the space. There, a screen of vertical granite slabs encloses a dry courtyard, a green lawn is bisected by a flagstone path, and the water course begins by spilling from a granite monolith into a long, stone trough. The water descends in multiple streams through a series of channels to a reflecting pool at the bottom of a steep rockery. Breivik’s sculptured garden is a good example of art that interprets nature without imitating it.

Art, Exhibit, Garden, Land Art, Nature, Sculpture, TravelDan SnowAugust 7, 2011art, Breivik, lillehammer, Lillehammer Art Museum, norway, sculpture garden, stone

Dedication of the BMAC Sculpture Garden

During my working life I’ve shifted freely, back and forth, from artist to dry stone waller. Whatever the final outcome of any work, it’s been the making that I’ve liked the best. With ‘Rock Rest’, I enjoyed the creative process so much that I built the piece twice; once in my Dummerston stone yard and once here beside the museum. The stone was initially collected from a steep slope on a wooded property in Townshend. It lay there for twelve thousand years after being plucked from the ledges by the last ice age. In ‘Rock Rest’ I’ve attempted to simulate the natural process that turns bedrock into loose stone. I’ve always been fascinated by the way stones separate from one another but lock more tightly together as they slide apart.

Sculpture Along the Canal in Uddevalla, Sweden

While driving through Sweden on the way to Norway I saw this pair of stone sculptures along-side the canal in Uddevalla. The chair, and “room”, are assembled from carved and broken slabs that are bolted together by threaded rods. I think the combination of natural forms and carved, polished surfaces on the same stone is very effective. Artist unknown.

Art, Sculpture, Stone, TravelDan SnowAugust 4, 2011sculpture, stone, sweden, uddevalla

The Fourth Corner is Finished, English Harbour Arts Centre Dry Stone Workshop

My thanks go out to all those who made the stone workshops a success. Community members collected stone by the snowmobile trailer load, or by filling up the back of their Subaru. Members of the Centre’s board of directors promoted the workshop, participated in it and brought baked goods and coffee to fuel progress. For those who dug sod, barrowed stone, nailed together guide frames and crafted the works I’m forever grateful for your toil and alacrity.

The Dry Stone Workshops at English Harbour Newfoundland

The dry stone workshops at English Harbour have been treated to buffeting winds, lightning storms, muffling fog and dazzling sunshine over these past two weeks. Participants have gone from working in tee shirts to suiting up in insulated rain-gear. Whatever the weather conditions of the day (or hour) it’s been exhilarating working on the Newfoundland coast. The wide vistas of boreal forestland and ever-changing seascape have made a dramatic backdrop to our dry stone activities.

The Magic of Whales at Night - English Harbour, Newfoundland

Last night the sky over the harbor was totally star-twinkled. From the bay, which was uncharacteristically placid, came the "whooshing" sound of whales' breaths. The huge animals rhythmically rose to the water's surface in the darkness, exhaling plumes of sea mist. They were invisible to the eye but must have been very close to shore. The 'squeaks' and 'squawks' of their aquatic songs reverberated around the bay. The sonic echoes were hauntingly beautiful but their meaning lost on my land-locked ears.

Nature, WorkshopDan SnowJuly 27, 2011art, canada, dry stone wall workshop, ehac, ehac 2011, newfoundland, stoneworks, trinity bight, whales

A Stone Lantern - English Harbour Dry Stone Workshop

While other parts of Canada are experiencing record high temperatures, here on the east coast of Newfoundland we go about in wool sweaters and windbreakers. Lightning storms have made quick visits overhead in the nighttime. Strong winds blow intermittently through the day. But always, in the past week, there has been fog. Time stands still when the quality of light remains the same from dawn to dusk. It’s the color of pewter tinged with green from the landscape of meadow grass and spruce forest. And always the mournful moan of the foghorn in the background calling out from the coastal headlands; a sound I don’t so much hear, as feel in my body like the rise and fall of a breath.

Dry Stone Walling Workshop English Harbour Newfoundland

Since my arrival in English Harbour under clear blue skies three days ago, the fog has crept in and kept our dry stone walling workshop blanketed in degrees of gray. However, the enthusiasm of all six participants has been nothing less than rainbow bright. They started out on Monday brainstorming their way to a design and plan of attack to begin building the first of four corner features for a new fence around the arts centre. On Tuesday they completed a six-sided base for a stone lantern and a short length of retaining wall. Today we’ll keep a watch out for whales. Maybe the three humpbacks that were feeding on capelin in the harbor on Monday will be back.

Summer Shower

Having the fresh supply of stone at my disposal, from last week’s harvesting, has been like getting a blood transfusion for the imagination. I can design with select pieces in mind. I knew when I saw the 6’x7’ slab in the jumble of stone that came off the hillside in Townshend that it was destined for this project in Dummerston.

Abundant Stone Harvest

Last week’s stone gathering was harsh work in a tranquil setting. The side-hill that I harvest loose stone from is a mile into the woods up a steep trail. Until the Clark’s and I invaded the scene with loading and transport equipment it was peaceful wilderness. A working landscape, by definition, must tolerate periodic disruptions. The stone I collect from the property will keep me supplied in dry stone construction materials for two years, building things like the barbecue table I made for my friends Peter and Phyllis. Saturday evening’s cookout at their place was as delicious as the sky was dramatic.

Dry Stone, Dry Stone Walling, StoneDan SnowJuly 12, 2011art, harvesting, stone, stone harvesting, stoneworks, vermont