The Designer Gardens

Last week I was at an event where more than 100 designers went mad for their industrys stars.  I mean paparazzi mad.  Photo ops, flashes everywhere, one on one moments and book signings for all who wanted.  I lamented that the U.S. landscape design industry doesnt cultivate that type of celebrity. We should.  If we did, and our greats were famous, we might get some of the lucrative licencing deals that architects, interior designers and even fashion designers get for outdoor products.

Here are three who work with stone in the Northeast who are deserving of even wider celebrity status than they already have.   They are artists and dry stone wallers.  They make the most rigid of materials fluid.  Their work dances across landscapes and their craft is slowly disappearing yet their work will stand for centuries.   They are our Rock Stars.

Lew French works on Marthas Vineyard.  He uses stone in unusual and surprising ways.  Heres a link to a profile done several years ago on CBS Sunday Morning.  He, like the NYC designers I saw, has big name clients and a book.

All photos above via Lewis French

Dan Snow works from his base in Vermont. He has written two books and the first, In the Company of Stone, has been in my library since the day it was published. There is also a film about his work called Stone Rising, The Work of Dan Snow.  He is a master at bending traditional techniques and making them into something else entirely.

Photo above via The Gardeners Eden

Two photos above via In the Company of Stone

Andy Goldsworthy isnt a dry stone waller. He is an artist who sometimes uses stone.  Yes, hes British, but much of his work is herehe spent three years as a visiting professor at Cornell.  There are films and books galore.  Wall details the project shown below at Storm King Art Center.  This wall is legendary among local artisan masons.

Photos above via Susan Cohan

If youd like to see Goldsworthys  last lecture as a visiting professor at Cornell, click here.

If youd like to read our other posts on stonethis month Garden Designers Roundtable is thrilled to have guest bloggers Deborah Silver and Sunny Weiler blog along with us. Everyones links are below.

Deborah Silver : Dirt Simple : Detroit, MI

Sunny Wieler : Stone Art Blog : West Cork, Ireland

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN

Ivette Soler : The Germinatrix : Los Angeles, CA

Jenny Peterson : J Petersen Garden Design : Austin TX

Rochelle Greayer : Studio G : Boston, MA

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

Tara Dillard : Vanishing Threshold : Atlanta, GA

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