Good Times in Goshen

Sunday, August 10, 2008

yesterday i hit a photographic jackpot — the good time stove company in nearby goshen, ma. not only is good time stove the place to find beautifully restored antique stoves of every size and shape (including stunning, vintage 1930’s gas kitchen stoves) but it’s also a landmark, thanks to the enormous tin man of goshen who welcomes visitors to the shop. built in 1955 to advertise a local fuel company, the tin man has been featured in the boston globe, the daily hampshire gazette, the berkshire eagle, and yankee magazine, as well as being a subject for bill griffith’s comic zippy the pinhead. you can read all about the towering tin man, including the story of how he got his sizable heart here on the good time stove company’s blog.

he’s awesome.

fascinating, random objects of rusty metal and painted wood embellish the outside of the shop - signs, tools, iron gates, wagon wheels, bikes, an old pair of wooden crutches, hand made bird feeders, defunct lawn mowers - melding together in a sculptural assemblage. beyond an arbor of rusty bicycles and swaying lady’s mantle, the three sisters garden stretches out from the shop and behind owner richard richardson’s home. not wanting to impose, i didn’t tour the gardens (this time) but they include windowed arbors, a stone and metal dragon, a 16×32′ water garden, a stone amphitheater, a sanctuary for meditation. you can tour all of them here.

i may never recycle another tin can.

after stopping here and looking around, i didn’t feel the need to travel farther (did i mention i was on my bike?) i was so creatively refreshed and inspired by the imaginative assemblages and joy de vive evident in the spotless shop full of carefully restored stoves and the surrounding artful gardens. i only wish i lived next door!

Stone by Stone - Garden Sanctuary Rises in Goshen

Stone by Stone
Garden Sanctuary rises in Goshen

By CHELSEY POLLOCK
Gazette Contributing Writer
Three Sisters Sanctuary - Goshen, ma


The Three Sisters Sanctuary is a garden of sculptural objects created by Richard Richardson.

GOSHEN - Two large stones stand on opposite sides of the grassy landscape. Their white quartz shapes stand in sharp contrast to the countless other darker boulders organized in circular "formations weaving around the yard".

Those two stones are battling sisters fighting it out for attention, says Richard M. Richardson, of Goshen.

Richardson, who has spent the past 15 years carefully developing his ornate backyard garden, said that all stones have a personality of their own. And the dueling sisters are not the only characters in the garden.

A group of tall rocks, which Richardson, 60, calls the Elders, are gathered off to the edge of a drum circle in the backyard.

"They just kind of feel like they have the wisdom of the garden," Richardson said of the group.


A sculpture of a girl made of shells, and other found objects, sits in the Three Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen.

A widely varied collection of large stones are purposefully scattered along the other side of the drum circle. Richardson said that when he stands in the center of the circle and looks out at these stones, he feels like he is at a dance, scanning the potential dance partners. Thus, he calls this formation "Dancing with the Ladies."

Richardson said he is not much of a gardener - and downplays his experience, saying he's just picked things up along the way.

By trade, he restores and sells antique stoves as the owner of Good Time Stove Company in Goshen. But after decorating the interior of his house, he said he decided to move his attention outside.


In the Three Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen brother and sister, Jaime LaBonte and Megan LaBonte stand beneath what Megan says is her favorite part of the garden, the dragon. The garden was created by Richard Richardson, who in an artist in Goshen.

"I started one day when I built one outdoor room and that was fun and there's no restriction," he said. "Outside, you have a room and any other space that abuts it."

Then, one day he was digging a well in his backyard and he found a seemingly unlimited supply of the large rocks buried on the property. As he continued be said the stone just jumped out of the ground.

"They didn’t want to be down there," he said. "They were waiting for me."

Richardson decided to put the stones to good use and began adding new sections to his backyard garden, which he calls the Three Sisters Sanctuary.

"You can really work with what you have and nature can work with you," Richardson said.


Richard Richardson, center, and two of his children, Sara "Stove Princess" LaBonte and Jaime LaBonte, pose with a cylinder stove in the showroom of the Good Time Stove Company on Cape Street in Goshen. At left is a line of parlor stoves (on the floor) and smaller 4 o’clock stoves (above and behind them, along window). The Three Sisters Sanctuary is located behind the store.

The garden now consists of several different elements, like the drum circle, an amphitheater and a sanctuary dedicated to Richardson's late daughter - Tina Marie. The separate "rooms" are connected by winding stone and brick pathways and a series of metal and wood arches.

Here, the natural aid the man-made seamlessly intertwine.


This 16-foot wooden figure representing a woman was built to be burned as a party of Megan E. LaBonte’s "Burning Woman" party, held earlier this month at the Three Sisters Sanctuary.

Rusted bicycles rise from the ground among the grasses and trees. Metal sculptures from various artists are scattered throughout the yard. Colored glass shines from among the rocks of the water garden and from the crevices in some of the stone formations.

Throughout the garden there is a wide variation of plant life. In the spring and summer, the garden is alive with color, Richardson said.

But, he said, "When he plants go away, there's still plenty to look at. It was meant to be a four-season garden."

The yard also incorporates fire with several fire pits, one with a chimney made to look the head of a dragon. The dragon is made of a mosaic of stone, glass and other objects. "When the fire beneath is lit, he appears to breathe smoke into the, and above the garden, Richardson said.



The dragon in the Three Sisters Sanctuary serves as the primary chimney to a fire pit below. Smoke travels out of the dragon’s mouth when a fire is lit.

The hodgepodge of items tucked throughout the yard is a bit overwhelming at first. But, Richardson said, the collection is intended to be an assortment, of interesting forms, rather than a mix of cohesive materials.

"I’m a collector of shapes. If I like a shape, I don't really care what it is," he said. "If at some point it talks to me, I'll do something with it."

It has been Richardson's artistic vision that has sculpted the Three Sisters Sanctuary over the years, with the help of local artisans, stone workers and gardeners, he said.


Richardson said that he sees the garden as his legacy, his gift to the Pioneer Valley.

"Without trying to seem like I'm flattering myself, I do believe that it is of some great substance," Richardson said. "I believe that it is more than just a backyard."

All of this creation hides behind the Good Time Stove Company building on Route 112 in Goshen.

The building is decorated with an array of found objects many of them rusted red or painted with bright colors. Richardson said that an average of 10 people per week used to stumble upon the garden, after stopping to check out the eye-catching building or the two-story tall tin man who stands sentry nearby.

But after recently posting a sign welcoming the public to visit the garden, Richardson said he has seen those numbers jump to 50 to 100 people on the average week While the high traffic has been an adjustment, Richardson said he is excited to see the rising interest in his work. "The only way it can really be used is if I share it," he said. And it teaches people how environmental art works; whether they are children or adults matters not."

Next venture: Richardson's next project will be to develop the furthest edge of the garden, where. the dueling sisters sit, into a labyrinth called "the Dance of Life." The labyrinth will take visitors through different. Rooms, representing courtship, seduction, commitment, conception, childhood and adulthood. The final section of the labyrinth - the Exit of Life- will drop visitors back into the main garden. Richardson says he hopes to complete the labyrinth in two to three years.

And after a hard day's work Richardson only needs to walk a few feet from the garden to his home, where he and his family have lived for almost 35 years. "My favorite part is that I live here," he said. "I live inside of my art."

With a Little Help From His Friends - RICHARD RICHARDS0N & THE THREE SISTERS SANCTUARY

With a Little Help from His Friends:
RICHARD RICHARDS0N & THE THREE SISTERS SANCTUARY



Richard Richardson collects old stoves, stones, plants, salvaged material and people. The stoves, which he restores and sells, help to support the creation of a two-acre art environment behind his home in the hills of western Massachusetts. The stones, plants and salvage find their places in a space that comprises roughly a dozen outdoor "rooms." And people are woven into every aspect of the site - from its original inspiration to its physical construction and intended uses. Unlike those visionary builders who labor in solitude or create their environments to retreat from the world, Richardson's environment is profoundly social.




His "Three Sisters Sanctuary" lies behind his house and nearby stove shop. The stove shop is a barn-like building covered with signs, old tools, rusted bicycle frames, stove trivets, bells and birdhouses-all stuck to its outer walls as if yanked there by a giant magnet. In front of the shop stands a two-story-tall tin man sporting a jaunty tin Stetson. Richardson traded for the figure, fashioned in the 1950s by a local contractor to advertise his skill with ductwork. Sara LaBonte. Richardson's daughter, points out that he was drawn to antique stoves for many of the same reasons that fuel his passion for creating the Sanctuary - an appreciation for beauty and artistry, a love of the heaviness of iron, and a delight in breathing life into otherwise forgotten ojects. Owning the business - fittingly named The Good Time Stove Company - has also given him the time and to explore his creative passions.



Between the shop and me house is the Bike Arch, an 18-foot-high rainbow of painted and rusted bicycles, which rises and falls like the frozen spray of some strange subterranean fountain. Richardson spent 15 years building his home here, a whimsical but functional two-story structure with peach-colored siding and moss-green trim. The site behind it documents his passions and preoccupations and the arrivals and departures of those whom he holds dear.



Raised in suburbia, Richardson knew early on that wherever he was meant to be, it wouldn't look like that. He drifted up to western Massachusetts, started the stove business in his early 20s and raised a family. Later, he named his environment after his daughters -Tina Marie, Sara Wenona and Megan Elizabeth - one indication of how central relationships are to his vision of the environment. He says, "The first gifts from the gods in my world were my children, and they're the most precious part of my world."



When he finished building his home, he felt lost until his younger brother Chuck encouraged him to create ornamental gardens. Soon after, however, Chuck became seriously ill. His death inspired Richardson to initiate an annual "garden party'" to celebrate his brother's life and ill help him and others who had lost ones to heal. Guests brought and planted their favorite perennials for nearly a decade, and the gardens grew larger and more varied. Richardson's interest in "softscape" -natural materials such s trees, shrubs and plants-grew after meeting Tammy Lee Graves, an expert gardener who encouraged him and who now continues to tend the gardens.



Graves introduced Richardson to Donnie Lesure, a skilled stone mason who inspired him to work with "hardscape," such as stone and brick. Richardson says. "Like a Bic lighter, he ignited it. He gave me a taste of stone and what stone can do." Over the past ten years, Mike Samson has added another dimension by operating the earth-moving equipment that enables Richardson to excavate and move large stones. One of the unusual aspects of the Sanctuary is how smoothly it integrates hardscape and softscape. Many, if not most, visionary environments tend toward one or the other. In the Sanctuary, pebble, brick and stone paths are edged with butterfly gardens; found objects and sculptures are surrounded by perennial plantings; and borders of large standing stones alternate with tall grasses or arbor vitae. Richardson estimates that there are about 200 large vertical stones and nearly 60 tall arbor vitae.



The next expansion of the site grew from Richardson's need to heal from a more profound loss- the sudden death of his oldest daughter from a ruptured aneurysm. He and Lesure had just begun building the first outdoor "room" that subsequently became the Tina Marie Richardson Sanctuary, with stone walls surrounding a cairn of rounded white river stones, topped by a large white quartz rising like a spirit ascending and supporting a honey-colored, clear glass globe. The Fire Pit and Water Garden lie nearby, and the juxtaposition is no accident. As Richardson says, "I felt you had to have both in order to have balance in your world." Here, a small stream produces the soothing sound of splashing water as it descends over small waterfalls into a pond bordered by river stones, plantings, standing stones, statuary and benches.



Paths of small white pebbles-alternating with inlaid stone, brick, colored glass and found objects-lead to a large area comprising several different "rooms" that Richardson calls the Amphitheater. After Tina Marie's death, he thought, "My daughter loved music, and I'm going to build an amphitheater that's going to bring music to her spirit." He built it adjacent adjacent to her sanctuary. At its lowest elevation, the amphitheater features a wide grass circle, with stone seating around its perimeter, tall vertical stones embedded at irregular intervals, and a slender, spire-shaped stone rising from its center. The Drum Circle lies above this, serving as a natural stage for the seating below.



At the highest point, where the backdrop of a stage would be, stands a feature that for many visitors defines the site as a whole. Hundreds of flat stones piled seven feet high form the sinuous C-shaped body of an immense dragon. Above them, a dragon's head arches upward like that of a howling wolf, its mouth open and long tongue lashing up into the air. The head is positioned over an outdoor hearth that, when lit, produces smoke for the dragon's fiery breath. Seven people worked with Richardson to create a skull of steel and wire mesh covered with cement into which shards of colored glass were embedded. The curve of the dragon's body forms an intimate room - the Dragon's Den - thoughtfully equipped with another stone bench, allowing people to sit facing one another for conversation. The crevices between stones are chockablock with hundreds of small objects - including candlesticks, driftwood, glass globes, colored glass fragments and figurines-like offerings left at a shrine.



Now in his 60s, Richardson's current focus is a labyrinth he calls the Dance of Life- a figure-eight -shaped space bordered by large vertical stones and waving grasses, each space featuring a huge, dazzlingly white quartz in its center. Here, the elements of the overall composition will evoke fundamental life passages from the beginning of a relationship (Dancing with the Ladies) through the End of Life. The narrow passage that marks the End of Life forces a visitor to exit alone but leads to an open space surrounded by butterfly gardens.



Characteristically. Richardson uses this project to engage people, asking them, for example, about experiences with seduction or commitment in their lives and giving him a way to explore areas he finds challenging in his own. "There are so many lessons in this yard. - he says. "The lessons are endless." He clearly relishes the social contact, saying, "It's just way too much fun...They all want to talk about it."

Just as the site began with relationships, it continues to depend on them and to foster them. Richardson's surviving daughters, Sara and Megan, have both contributed to the site. By handling the administrative details of the stove business, Sara ("the Stove Princess) has, in Richardson's words, "made the whole thing possible."

Altogether, he has worked with more than 15 people on the site. Their contributions are creative collaborations and labors of love, but each worker is paid. He plans to bring others into his current project. "The labyrinth," he says, "is going to be the most fun I'll ever have. I'm trying to build a path that is going to be very enlightening, and I'm going to be able to incorporate people into my world." He says, "I've spent every week this spring meeting with somebody new pertaining to the yard, from bus tours, to artists, to gallery owners." The site attracts a steady stream of visitors and, if he's not working, Richardson will usually walk with them and answer the inevitable questions. He recently hosted a third-grade class visit, dressed in a suit that somehow evoked Uncle Sam crossed with a circus clown and a '70s-era Deadhead.

Richardson says, "The things that I do out here have to do with chasing passion and wanting to have that passion in my world. And now that I've created it, it's the greatest place I've ever been, the greatest job I could have, the greatest lifestyle I could have. And it doesn't want to end. It keeps getting better. 'Curious George' - that's what they should call me. And Curious George is building this labyrinth called "The Dance of Life." ...with a little help from his friends.

MARK KARPEL is a psychologist and writer living in Massachusetts.

A website with information and photographs of the Three Sisters Sanctuary can be found at: http://www.threesistersgarden.com.