PermaSculpture

When we moved to our new property two years ago,  my plan was to use most of this space for my own sculpture park.  I’d probably plant some trees and bushes to create natural “rooms” to best display my work – something along the lines of Grounds for Sculpture in NJ.

I still have The Mist Point Sculpture Park at my old studio, but that is basically an open lawn of 1/2 acre or so with sculptures placed within those confines, like paintings on a blank gallery wall.  I wanted something more.  But I’m not a landscape designer, and so I began reading up on the topic.

Along the way, I discovered a powerful design movement called Permaculture.  It was like becoming aware of a whole new world… my eyes were opened.  I became captivated, some might say obsessed (my wife for instance).  But in that system of energy use and food production, I saw an incredible opportunity to transform this landscape and provide for my family.  A really good introduction to some of the environmental/economic/cultural issues which I’ve become aware of in the process of studying permaculture is the video below, the BBC documentary “A Farm For the Future:”

But I could not abandoned my initial desire to create a sculpture park.  I am, after all, first and foremost a sculptor (even if I do spend a more-than-fair amount of time planting trees these days).  And so, I decided to try and merge the two ideas… a Permaculture-inspired landscape which also fully integrates sculpture.  I call this idea PermaSculpture.

As my design takes shape, the sheer magnitude of this undertaking becomes clear.  But I’ve already begun, and I will be sharing my progress here along the way.