The Earth Stone Cairn

“The Earth Stone Cairn”
Remi Lleshi

Outside Carole Peck’s Good News Cafe, Woodbury

Carole Peck’s is one of the top restaurants in all of Connecticut. In addition to that, she likes to show local artists’ work inside and outside her place on Route 6 in Woodbury. While driving by the other day, I noticed a new piece out front that I really liked. It reminded me of Andy Goldsworthy (one of my favorite artists in the world) so I pulled in and snapped a shot. This thing is cool.

stoneI was happy to find a nice description about the piece on the Good News Cafe website:

The Earth Stone Cairn is a fourteen thousand pound stone sculpture comprised of sixty-eight layers of granite and marble collected from around the world. Its spherical shape and over thirty natural colors are made up of stones from over fifteen different countries.

The stones were all hand laid by Lleshi himself with no contemporary masonry techniques used requiring exceptional craft and care. This ninety inch tall stone sculpture, is seventy-two inches in diameter at its widest point, giving it a majestically balanced appearance. The term cairn derives its roots in masonry; meaning a pile of stone used as a symbol for something. For Lleshi this Cairn represents the earth and all of its different components. The various stones needed to make it whole, are a metaphor for the differences we see in various areas of the world.

Remi Lleshi was born and raised in Northern Albannia. His environment was one of a natural existence with everything handmade and homestead. While attending school in Albania his favorite subjects were Geometry, Physics, and Biology. He majored in Forestry Engineering in college which inspired him to work close with nature. Remi moved to the United States in the early 1990 s and settled in Woodbury, CT.

His works are not standard masonry but more of an artistic vision that has purpose and a placement. Lleshi s vision is to enhance our environment. He states, We are surrounded by the natural world as a gift to us, and I take that gift, giving back a beautiful creation of art in a different form. From majestic stonewalls and statues, to beautiful waterfalls and fountains, Remi’s artistry is represented throughout New England.

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