Farm
In 2005, I purchased a derelict dairy farm in the Western Catskills. It was originally settled in 1799. For twenty years, I have been reimagining the farm, alone and with collaborators, through art projects, architecture, and landscape design.
Barbed Wire Ball
Thousands of feet of barbed wire, removed from posts and wrapped into a ball.
Barbed Ball, 2005. 48’ x 48” x 48”
Locust fence posts before “transplanted” among colonies of milkweed growing in pasture.
Rhizome Posts, 2022, Locust Fence Posts, Variable Dimensions
Survey Poem
Site-specific hanging poem, distilled from the property’s original land survey.
from an iron rod
in the ground
on the division line
between lands
on the south
and lands
being described
on the north
thence commencing
and running
along the line
between
and running mostly along
or near
a stone wall
along
the lands
now or formerly of
and thence along the lands
now or formerly of
to an upright stone
in said stone wall
turning
and running still
along the lands
now or formerly of
and running along partly
or near
a broken wire fence
and partly along
or near
a stone wall
along the lands
now or formerly of
and thence along lands
now or formerly of
to a stone wall end
to a point
in the center of the road
from a capped rod
set at a stone wall end
thence turning
and running
along the center line
of said road to
the point
of the beginning
containing
these acres of
land
Riffle, 2017, Thinned trees stacked in the form of a stream.
Utility Pole
Brief written texts in aluminum letters are affixed to utility poles that cross the property.
Unravel, 2019 (after Tom Wessels)
Osmosis, 2023
Path of Nouns
A path through an overgrown plantation of Norway Spruce is marked with nouns.
Entrance, Path of Nouns, 2023
Builder Gardener Carver
Lender Fixer Neighbor
Walker Forager Swimmer
Reader Feeler Dreamer
Listener Lover Partner
Friend
Polite Company
A wall of four-hundred straw bales divides the northern half of a field from its southern half. A small opening in the center allows for conversation.
Polite Company, 2025, 3’ x 220’, Baled Straw
A Chair For The Sitting President, 2025
Collaborations
I have been fortunate to work with several skilled people who have helped conceive and execute sculptures and landscape features that I could not realize on my own.
Mel Bellar
Bruce Commandeur
Jeff Stevens
Rustic pond pavilion, in collaboration with Bruce Commandeur.
Studio built into the stone ruins of a small barn.
Small performance space built into the ruins of the former sap house.
Sugar Shack Stage, 2016, in collaboration with Bruce Commandeur
Two gardens by Mel Bellar in restored barn foundation with artist’s mowed pattern in background.
Waking Labyrinth, 2019 on upper level
Star gazing mound planted on lower level
Migration Mound, 2015
Horticultural sculpture of bi-annual geese migrations, in collaboration with Mel Bellar
One of fifteen willow whips planted in 2015.
Growing together a decade later.
Silo Cairn
A one-day pop shade garden where the silo once stood. Stone cairn, built with Mel Bellar, on the foundation of the collapsed barn silo.
Followed by Silo Cairn, 2020, in collaboration with Mel Bellar
Boulder Poem, 2020
A four-sided poem about glacial erosion carved by Jeff Stevens.
Streams off mountains
River delta born
Uplift!
A plateau
Ice into valleys
Slurried boulders borne by glaciers
Deposited by meltwaters
Here
Torqued Ramp, 2021
Abandoned stone barn ramp reassembled on farm as curving and tilting sculpture. A collaboration with Jeff Stevens.
Original 1899 barn ramp used in Torqued Ramp
Typical stone barn ramp leading to second level
A maquette indicating the tilt, curve, and incline of the sculpture.
Torqued Ramp, 2021, in collaboration with Jeff Stevens.
