About
Born in Toronto, Ontario in 1955 John came to the Ottawa Valley in 1976 and eventually settled on a small piece of land outside Lanark Village where he and his wife still live in their renovated farmhouse(circa 1908) and where they raised their six(now adult) daughters. After a career as a carpenter/builder that spanned over thirty years John was introduced to stone in a very natural and organic way in 2004.
Photography by Chris Goodyear
He and his wife had hired an Ottawa based artist to carve a family grave marker from a large boulder. Since that artist was not interested in the more mundane aspect of the marker i.e. prepping the raw surface for lettering John took up the challenge. With minimal instruction from the artist (strictly verbal) and using his intuition and tool skills acquired over decades as a carpenter he completed the marker and the seeds for Living Stones were planted.
After several years of experimenting with carving stone John migrated to being a full time carver in 2009. He is completely self taught and over the years his skills level(trial and error) and tool arsenal have ever increased. Working exclusively with Canadian stone (mostly from Ontario), he collects his own stone at source. Those sources can vary from quarries and gravel pits, farms and forests, beaches and backyards and road cuts...wherever a stone may be found that inspires an idea or where a stone can simply be inspiring for it's natural beauty. John is excited by new challenges that come with new creative ideas and fascinated and intrigued by every stone's geological story. John's studio is next to his home.
“Creativity is Intelligence Having Fun” - Albert Einstein