Dan Snow to speak Sept. 18

Dan Snow, the author of: "In the Company of Stone: the Art of the Stone Wall," will give a talk at our September program on "Dry stone construction: a 'fitting' medium for the rock garden." He believes that: "The earth is alive and continually tries to take back what it has given up." Snow’s walls and artwork always embody this dynamic between the earth and the structures he creates.

Save the date, details will follow. Meantime, visit Dan's website:
http://www.inthecompanyofstone.com/

And here's Dan's bio:

Dan Snow is a designer of outdoor spaces in stone, and an art maker specializing is dry stone constructions. He has been building with stone since 1972 when he worked on the restoration of a 13th century Italian castle. His career as a professional dry stone waller began soon after, in his native Windham County, Vermont, with retaining wall and field fence reconstructions. He apprenticed with Scottish “dry stane dyker” Dave Goulder in 1986 and on return to Scotland in 1994 passed the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain, Level 2, Craftsman Certification Test. Snow became a DSWA certificated Mastercraftsman in 2000. His dry stone constructions have included stock-proof fences, pillars, stiles, staircases and arch bridges. Utilitarian works have expanded to include garden follies, grottos and grandstands as well as environmental art and non-functional, abstract and figurative works of sculpture.

In 2001 Snow authored “In the Company of Stone”, published by Artisan, with photographs of his work by Peter Mauss. “Stone Rising”, a film by Camilla Rockwell, released in 2005, captures the spirit of Snow’s constructions and chronicles the process of their creation. Snow’s second book “Listening to Stone - Hardy Structures, Perilous Follies, and Other Tangles with Nature”, was published by Artisan in October 2008. His work has been the subject of articles in “This Old House” and “Vermont Life” magazines, and the “New York Times.”

Dan Snow has instructed many workshops in dry stone walling and lectured on the craft across the USA, Canada and Great Britain. In 2003 and 2007 he taught environmental art workshops for the University of Art and Design, Helsinki. In 2008 and 2009 Snow worked with Kansas State Landscape Architecture students rebuilding pioneer homestead walls and creating a permanent sculpture for the grounds of the Beach Museum of Art. As a DSWA Examiner he has organized test venues and tested dozens of applicants in the craftsman certification scheme.