b. 1950 d. 2019
Site Affiliation: Spiral House Park
Artist Tom Gottsleben lived and worked for three decades at what had been an abandoned stone quarry in Saugerties, NY. A painter before coming to the 45-acre property in 1982, Gottsleben found the stone there had the potential to express the deep and timeless ideas of sacred geometry that he had been exploring before even realizing there was such a belief system. Gottsleben, along with his wife Patty Livingston, transformed the property into a magical park setting for his unique and joyful bluestone and crystal glass sculpture and a majestic five-story spiral house, all based on the patterns of nature and sacred geometry. More than the discrete elements that Gottsleben created — including serpentine stone walls, gardens, and trails that tie the property together with his art and the Spiral House — Gottsleben returned a ravaged landscape to unity with the terrain of the Catskill Mountains. His work was the subject of solo exhibitions at the Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, NY), Art Omi International (Ghent, NY), and The Museum at Bethel Woods (Bethel, NY); and group shows at the annual Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood (Stockbridge, MA), and the New York Botanical Garden (Bronx, NY).
Primary Medium: Sculpture
Primary Stylistic Term: Contemporary
HAHS Affiliations: Gottsleben exhibited his work at the annual Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood, the home and studio of renowned sculptor Daniel Chester French in Stockbridge, MA.
Fun Fact: Tom designed and built the elaborately detailed Spiral House after his wife, Patty Livingston, initially asked him to design a small guest house to accommodate the visits of family and friends.
Recommended Publications: The Spiral House: Revealing the Sacred in Everyday Life, G Arts, NYC, 2019.