Art of Design – Artist Statement

Landscape architects and designers mediate between the natural and built environments.  They design places and spaces for human activity, reclaim degraded urban and industrial sites, make public art, create buffers and interventions, bring the beauty and comfort of the natural world into the manmade, and a sense of human scale into the landscape.  They explore the relation of man to earth, and offer dialogue, resolution, and celebration.

I am a geologist and teacher by training, and a self-taught artist and designer.  From my geology background I have a deep understanding of the Earth and its processes.  My teaching experience has given me much practice in communicating expertise, and bridging cultural, social and technical divides.  My art and design work represent the wellspring of ideas needed to fashion solutions to problems of any sort.  Landscape design is my synthesis of these skills, talents and knowledge.

Making art is an important part of my landscape design process.  I use all media – painting, sculpture, collage, photography – to investigate, describe and express the “genius loci” or spirit of a place, before I design.  I also use art, in addition to conventional drawing and rendering techniques, to represent final designs, especially those entered in competition.