Saturday, October 9, 2010

Stone River, by Landscape Architect and Stonemason Jon Piasecki

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Stone River is a project by award wining landscape architect and stonemason, Jon Piasecki.
Jon Piasecki is a graduate of Harvard University (with a Masters in Landscape Architecture in 1995), and Cornell University (with a B.S. in forest ecology in 1989). In 2004, he received the Prince Charitable Trust Rome Prize awarded by the American Academy in Rome, and was in residence at the Academy in 2005.

Photos By John Dolan, 2009
For this project Jon was commissioned by prominent landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh to build a series of paths through the woods. For many people this task would be done using practicality and functionality, but for Jon, there is much more to it than that.

Jon at work, on Stone River
Jon Piasecki is a very interesting and philosophical man, with a strong personal and professional interest in ecology, and the cultural importance of the land.
In an interview with Orion Magazine, Jon tells of how his aim for this project was to ‘catch people’ coming into the woods, and by way of the stone paths, show them how to slow down a take in all the magic and beauty in the woods, something that many people, living life at 60mph ‘married to the materialistic world’ fail to see or do.







The stones in the path are almost fused together by Jon’s fantastic skill and passion for the project. He would spend hours meticulously shaping each stone until there is just a hairline crack between them.  




I highly recommend checking out this fantastic video by Orion Magazine, in which you can see Jon Piasecki working on the project, and listen to him talk about nature, the woods, and his multi-year stone works project in New York State — Stone River.  


17 comments:

  1. Very poetic and beautiful . . . especially in the fourth photo. ;>)

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  2. Becomes an optical illusion. You want to step INto it, not ONto it. Walking on water.

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  3. beautiful thanks for sharing, I agree with Elephants eye ~ walking on water, thank you for stopping by my blog and bringing yours to my attention, there are so many blogs on blotanical I have only visited a fraction so far, Frances

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  4. Wow, as a woodland gardener, i am very impressed with these meandering stone paths. I would love to have some paths like that, but maybe I will at least end up with some attractive stone pavers here and there!

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  5. Hey, I enjoyed your Blog.The Earth has a vast range of landscape Aerizona including the icy landscapes of polar regions, mountainous landscapes, vast arid desert landscapes, islands and coastal landscapes.

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  6. Stone River is truly a work of heart and art. What a master he is at his craft! Thank you so much for sharing this!

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  7. Distant and yet so close. Then to know that the Japanese word 'karesansui' 枯山水, is used for a Japanese dry landscape (garden), or dry rock garden generally referred to as a 'Zen garden'.

    In JAANUS: 'A common type of garden which suggests mountains and water using only stones, sand or gravel'.

    Karesansui originally 'kare senzui' (in Sakuteiki, 11th century) literally means 'dry mountain water' and that is what this is. Beautiful.

    Piet

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  8. Would like to stroll down that path; it has a river-like quality to it! Nice post, thanks.

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  9. Apparently great page... This page reached my standards.... Keep on going...

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  10. Great Post and blog too! love it Stone Art..

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  11. I'm one of the "10 people who will see this video". I think it is one of the best things I have seen a person do in my lifetime. This will be a hidden marvel for discovery forever, literally. 1000s of years from now people may find this, like we find ruins and it could be a marvel from "the past". I really think this is a piece of "Human History".

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  12. I wish I had made that muchlandscape stone progress with our current project. Even then it won't be as cool as this! Amazing job, thanks for sharing this with us!

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  13. i think this is very impressed with these meandering stone paths.

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  14. Wow... Amazing photography! Individually, people engaged in this craft are called stonemasons. They have been with society from the beginning, when villages became cities and began to build from stone. stonemasons fashioned and shaped stones from the surrounding environment.

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