Turning Toward the Light: Rock On! Celebrating Stone in the Garden

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The Garden in the Woods is currently featuring a series of sculptures by New England artists, all of which relate to stone in the garden. Stone and plants go together very well, and each of the sculptures has been carefully sited to bring out the best in both the sculptures and the surrounding plants. Walking through the garden is now quite an adventure as you meet new and interesting artistic works at every turn of the path.

Here are some of the sculptures in the exhibit, arranged by artist.

Christopher Curtis. "Portal" stands high on an esker above the Lily Pond. "Conception", made of gleaming white Vermont Marble, stands in deep shade at the entrance to the Rare Plant garden.

Linda Hoffman. The Juggler" is constructed from a rusted cultivator and smooth Mexican river stones. Linda also has a series of small sculptures of human figures perched on rocks in the rock garden, designed to make the small rocks appear to be huge cliffs.

Jerry Kuyper. Jerry Kuyper builds his balanced rock compositions using stone found on site. "Sentient", which was built in the lily pond, is completely balanced - there is nothing holding those stones in place. "Cairnation", in the Rare Plant garden, is an assemblange of moss-covered rocks perching on top of existing stones. I enjoyed Jerry's work a lot, and was even inspired to start building small balanced-rock cairns in my own garden.

Michael Mazur. Michael is the founder of Earthworks, a landscape design firm that focuses on integrating stone, water, and earth. He designed the Entrance to the exhibit, framed by two massaive mica schist boulders, and the Stone Bench.

David Phillips. To make "Stegasaurus", David Phillips picked out a granite rock in the woods, and added bronze plates that were based on a fish skeleton. His second work, "Burrow", is sited in the middle of Hop Brook.

Ron Rudnicki. I love Rod Rudnicki's work, which combines rock, ferns, and mosses, in sculptures which look almost, but not quite, naturally occurring. This one, Apu II, looks like a silent conclave of stone elders.

Karin Stanley. Karin Stanley draws her inspiration from ancient Celtic symbols of water, air, numbers, and solar and lunar elements. The works below are called "Dualistic", "Triplicity", "Ode to New Grange" (which uses polished stell as a reflecting mirror to symbolize the setting moon), Celtic Stela, and "Cathair Seisuin or Four Seasons", a Celtic Shadow Sundial.

Joe Wheelwright. Joe Wheelwright is a carver of stones, trees, bones, and other natural materials. His works in this exhibit all features faces. Here is "Monk", "Singing Stone", "Fox Face", and two views of "Yodeling Stone".