Excerpts from 'Collaborations in Stone'

Stones in a dry laid wall collaborate.  They do all the things the thesaurus offers as synonyms for the word. They co-operate, join forces, team up, band together, work together, participate and combine. It is this association, this collective connectivity of stone that yields itself so well to being worked with in the company of others. 

While the traditional view of walling may be seen as a lonely task involving long days plugging away in the harsh elements on your own, building endless stretches of wall that no one will ever see or appreciate, this is not my experience. The many exciting opportunities to build stone projects, ones that I’ve dreamed up and/or designed with others, has almost always included working in the company of other like-minded enthusiasts as myself. In a sense we are all common labourers employed by the stones, learning to work together the way they do.

This is a wonderful thing. Perhaps, other than being in an orchestra, there is nothing so satisfying as the unity of collectively building something together using only stones. The performers join to create a special ‘spacial' music. The walls sculptures and other various installations in this book are more recent examples of these types of collaborations. The projects for the most part stand as permanent reminders that people with a common love of stone have worked together in harmony to leave structures that may continually delight and inspire others the same way.

Page 3 of Collaborations in Stone