Hector Santos

I have been working with stone for more than thirty years. My work has taken me to many job sites across the United States and South America. I have worked with homeowners, architects, and engineers on projects as simple as replacing loose stones on steps, and as complex as complete houses of stone. Most of my stone is quarried in New England, upstate New York, and sometimes the midwest, with a majority coming from Goshen Stone in Goshen, Massachusetts or Quimby Mountain Stone in Sharon, Vermont, and occasionally there are projects where there is stone on the property where I am working. My work mostly consists of walls, patios, and occasionally a chimney. Being a stonemason has been a gateway to harder, more challenging, self-created and commissioned sculpture projects. My outdoor site specific sculptures are inspired by the Neolithic structures of Europe using large slabs of stone as the structural element or frame and an inlay of stone between, sometimes with copper, to create the effect that the stone is moving or bending. What I hope to accomplish with my work is to create sense of place, a place to read, meditate, eat lunch, or just be. I feel my work is functional as well; the sculpture is the focal point, I often build a bench to give people a place to sit and include landscaping in my designs to enhance the overall effect. I see these sculptures as a greeting when approaching a corporate office building, as an accent to a well-landscaped garden, in a courtyard, or along a hiking path in the woods.