b'[Tom] If the composed rock sculptures were the pure bliss of dis-covering the unique beauty and expressiveness of each stone, the landscaping walls were a very difficult challenge. Here, there was the need to harvest stone and learn basic wall building in relation to a particular piece of land. I had absolutely no experience on which to draw. I meditated on Raffertys Bench every day for many months. I would scramble over the rubble to the eastern side of the pond and sit on this little stone bench that I had built for a dog we had loved so much and had been part of Pattys and my life together from the beginning. It wasnt just a question of how to build the walls, but of what the walls had to do with my art. Over time I accepted that it was okay to focus on what gave me joy, just to work with the stone wherever it led and not worry about some grand plan. Of course, as often happens, when you let go you see the door that wants to open. Eventually, my dialog with the land crystallized into the idea of allowing the wall to follow the contours of the rubble it would replace, and to be a form that unifies rather than divides. Gravity showed where the rock wanted to settle and how it wanted to arrange itself, whats called its angle of repose. Observing and following natures predilection meant less work for me and the crew and less work ultimately for the walls. That process also led to the curves in the walls and the opportunity to contrast these new sinuous shapes with the existing straight lines on the opposite side33of the pond: the rectilinear ranch house and the dramatic expanse of bedrock.The result is that the walls seem to arise from the land rather than be imposed on it. They feel uncovered rather than built, revealing the bones of the land itself and reinforcing the natural energy of the hillside.Traditionally, walls are built to separate and divideone property from another, fields from forests, livestock from crops. Our walls are designed to express unity. The walls themselves are constantly morphinga wall transforms seamlessly into stairs; the stairs open up into a bench; the bench dissolves back into the wall, with shelves and niches also appearing organically. Do you sit on the stairs or in the wall? Duality dissolves first into ambiguity and then, when the mind lets go, into wholeness.'