inspiration
'For years,' wrote David Tisherman in his Details column in the June 2005 issue of the magazine, 'people have asked me where I get my ideas - pools raised out of the ground, the small spillways, the drain details, the modular deck treatments, the color usage and the use of reflection, to name just a few. "Through my design education" is the short answer, of course, but I can get more specific if we take a look at
Lots of clients come to the design process for their watershapes with certain preconceptions. Sometimes, they even have full-fledged and dearly held visions of what they want. Every once in a while, that can be a good thing; other times, however, not so much. But what I try to do regardless, each and every time, is
This edition of WaterShapes EXTRA carries a link to one of my all-time favorite WaterShapes articles: "Living Art" by Philip di Giacomo and Mark Holden. I remember how pleased Eric Herman was to land this particular story for our October 2004 issue. He'd been after di Giacomo periodically for years, and we both looked on Phil's willingness to develop an article as
In just a few days, my wife and I will be heading out on a road trip that will take us to Yosemite and then on to the eastern slope of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. It’s been a while since we took a trip like this one. Last time, we had a great camping spot reserved in a meadow high above Yosemite Valley. When we arrived in the middle of that June, however, the campsite was still under about 14 feet of snow, so we had to make do in what was, because so many higher-elevation sites were
Back in the early days of WaterShapes, I recall a long breakfast conversation with David Tisherman in which we discussed the importance of travel as part of a complete design education. It was the summer of 1999, and I was on the hunt for artwork to go along with an article Mark Holden was preparing on the history of watershape design: David was known as someone who had traveled extensively and, more to the immediate point, was an avid taker of photographs of superior quality. He’d brought several sleeves filled with slides (remember them?) along to breakfast, and as we talked and I reviewed the photos, I was endlessly impressed by how meticulously he’d recorded so many places and details. I’ve always been a traveler, too, but I never much cared for
In one of my very first Travelogues (see the October 26, 2011 edition of WaterShapes EXTRA!), I wrote about Washington’s Bainbridge Island – and more specifically about Bloedel Reserve and its large reflecting pool, which was showcased by Kelly Klein in Pools, her wonderful coffee-table book. I’ve just returned from another trip to the island and once again
