"I picked up some stones in the Hudson Valley—as I had done in Tuscany—always with the same impulse: that I can hold them in my hand, and that they are beautiful. Some came from an old quarry in Cold Spring in upstate New York, others were removed from a construction site in Manhattan. The former appear to be pegmatite, i.e., “composite” granites (in Latin, “pegma” means “to assemble”), which have rich black spots—like charcoal—that stimulate the imagination..."Read more