Commentaries, Interviews & Profiles
‘Throughout recorded history,’ wrote David Tisherman in the July/August 2002 edition of WaterShapes, ‘people have tried to control the elements in every which way they can. We plant trees to block the wind, build levees to hold back rising river water and dikes to hold back the seas. We build skyscrapers that defy gravity, winds and earthquakes. ‘For all of this ingenuity, however, we sometimes don’t do a very good job. When our efforts to control the elements fail
‘In one way or another,’ declared David Tisherman in his Details column of June 2002, ‘visual acceptance is what makes our world go around. ‘Think about the clothes we wear, the cars we admire, the foods we eat – not to mention interior design, home and office furnishings, landscapes and watershapes. So much of our response to these and other features of our environment,’ he added, ‘is based on
'Is it honest to say that too few of the swimming pools you find in America's backyards are what one could call well built - and that even fewer of them are well designed? I think so,' wrote Brian Van Bower in opening his Aqua Culture column for April 2002, 'because so many of the pools I see run like junk and look like junk.' 'The environment out there is so unfortunate that
By David Tisherman ‘Watershaping isn’t a job to me,’ wrote David Tisherman in the March 2002 edition of WaterShapes. ‘It’s my passion, which explains why I’m so obsessed with steel and concrete and water and what I can
‘At nearly five months and counting, it’s clear that many of us are still trying to sort out, understand and learn to live with the events of September 11, 2001 – and I suspect that, on some levels, we will be doing so for months or even years to come.’ That’s how Brian Van Bower began his column in the February 2002 issue of WaterShapes – an essay in which he defined a transcendent role for watershapes and conveyed a message about
'I can be quite outspoken,' declared David Tisherman in opening his Details column in the November/December 2001 issue of WaterShapes. 'Here's the unvarnished truth: No more than a hundred pool builders out there can legitimately call themselves designers, . . . while only a handful design at the very highest level.' 'Almost always, the difference between these top-level designers and
'If you work hard,' wrote Brian Van Bower to open his Aqua Culture column for September 2001, 'you should get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.' 'For all of the obvious truth of that idea, I wonder how many of us hard-working folks in the watershaping trades take the time for those things that bring us enjoyment and a sense of
'As obvious as [it] may seem, it's phenomenally easy to lose sight of the immediate importance of healthful habits,' wrote Brian Van Bower in opening his Aqua Culture column in the July/August 2011 edition of WaterShapes. 'I know deep in my heart that being healthy is a long-term commitment, but I also know how easy it is to set that discipline aside.' 'As we make our way through [the busy] summer season, . . . it's easier than usual to set aside concerns about healthy living in favor of
'In all of the discussions in print and in seminar rooms about advancing the watershaping trades,' declared Brian Van Bower in opening his Aqua Culture column in WaterShapes' July 2006 issue, 'it seems to me there's been a missing voice - that of the client. 'We spend lots of time dissecting, praising, disputing, criticizing and encouraging one another, but somehow we seem to have bypassed the thought that
Chromatic Virtues