Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center

The indoor and outdoor works specifically commissioned for Annmarie are dramatic, ranging from a colorful ceramic gate that welcomes visitors to Annmarie, to a ramp that takes visitors up into the trees.  Two favorite works, The Council Ring and  A Surveyor's Map invite guests into the art to walk on, touch, read, and explore how art and nature complement each other.  A Tribute to the Oyster Tonger, considered by many the most important piece in the collection, celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the Chesapeake Bay, and the proud watermen who for generations made their living off the resources of the Bay.  Collectively, these diverse works allow visitors to explore the ever-changing shapes and shadows of the forest and the art it shelters. 

DISCOVER THE POSSIBILITIES WHERE ART AND NATURE MEET

Created over a period of five months and composed of over six tons of ceramics and over 630 sections, these glazed ceramic gateposts are perhaps the largest and most complex hand-built project ever undertaken by a U.S. pottery studio. The magnificent designs of Stonehaus Studios are the result of the complementary skills that King and Jaime bring to their partnership. King’s background in carpentry, allows him to carve the clay in what he describes as “clay carpentry.” Jaime’s background in painting is evidenced by her use of strong colors and graphics. Having worked as a team since 1988, they are known international for their bold designs and technical mastery of the medium. The Gateway can be found in the popular book, Handbuilt Ceramics by Kathy Triplett.

Exalt in the outdoor sculpture and discover how the changing seasons alter your experience of art and nature. 

A Tribute to the Oyster Tonger, A Chesapeake Waterman
1994
Bronze & Granite

Antonio Tobias Mendez
American, b. Denver, Colorado 1963

Annmarie Garden Collection

It was Francis Koenig’s wish that the first sculptural work installed at Annmarie Garden be a memorial to the people he greatly admired, oyster tongers. Antonio Tobias Mendez was selected through a national competition to design the memorial. The artist’s intent was to celebrate a people of pride, character, and integrity; to create a feeling for their space; to symbolize the elements of their existence; and, to invoke a sense of timelessness and enduring quality.

The Council Ring
1996
Granite

B. Amore & Woody Dorsey
Kokoro Carvers
Vermont

Annmarie Garden Collection

Artists’ statement: We created the Council Ring as an oasis in the heart of the garden to serve as a place of quiet refuge and reflection. A wonderful destination in itself, it also serves the community as an intimate setting for artistic presentations. The two entry stones signal one is approaching a special place. The central inlaid circle opens to the sky in contrast to the surrounding woods. From this circle, a sense of ordered serenity radiates concentrically outwards. We imagine a storyteller moving through the standing stones to the center, and listeners, mesmerized by the tale, the whispering woods, soft light and the enchantment of space.

A Surveyor's Map
1997
Wood, steel

Jan Rosen Queralt and Roma Campanile
Baltimore, Maryland

Annmarie Garden Collection

Artists’ Statement: The voice of memory is a composite and we have designed an experience that reflects this. The boardwalk through the woods provides an experience of place at different levels and from different perspectives. This work of art reflects the roads, crossroads, zig zags, and benchmarks that constitute one’s memories, like a surveyor’s map. Process, change, and memory are integrated in the experience. Inscriptions taken from interviews with residents from Calvert County reflect the community at large and its collective memory; over time the words will be worn away by the footsteps of others, just as a memory can fade with time.

Leviatano
2015
Stainless Steel

Michael Shewmaker
American, b. Illinois, 1953

Annmarie Garden Collection

Hand
ca. 1959-1964
Bronze

Sorel Etrog
Canadian, b. Jassy, Romania, 1933

Annmarie Garden Collection
Gift of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, 2023, from Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1980

Large Head with Beard
ca. 1958
Bronze

Shay Rieger
American, b. 1923-2015

Annmarie Garden Collection
Gift of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, 2023, from the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981

Stroll along a quiet wooded path under a canopy of glorious loblolly pines.

Maggie Smith, Calvert County and Washington State Schoolchildren

Annmarie Garden Collection 

Placed throughout the Garden are thirteen Talking Benches inlaid with tiles representing plants native to southern Maryland. These creations are the result of a collaboration between artist Maggie Smith of Bainbridge Island and more than 100 students from Calvert County, Maryland, and Washington State.

Seek out all thirteen:

• Paw Paw Bench
  Sponsored in Honor of Commissioner Patrick Buehler
• Dogwood Bench
  Sponsored by Richard & Sheryl Jones Alu
• White Oak Bench
  Sponsored by the Clark family in memory of Mrs. Jane Clark
• Loblolly Bench
  Sponsored in Honor of Susan Rothschild
• Tobacco Bench
  Sponsored by “The Boys” in Memory of John P. and Theodora M. Murray
• Rose Mallow Bench
  Sponsored by Kasey Marie Keen
• Pokeweed Bench
  Sponsored in Honor of Sue Apple
• Poison Ivy Bench
  Sponsored by Jennifer and Tyler Draxton
• Sassafras Bench
  Sponsored by Don and Kathi Prescott
• Bloodroot Bench
  Honoring Tom & Maggie Delaney from their grandchildren
• Wild Columbine Bench
  Honoring the 30th anniversary of Bill & Robin Fetsch
• Sweet Gum Bench
  Celebrating the Schrodel Family of Mike, Teresa, and Carmen
• Tuliptree Bench
  In Loving Memory of George and Mary Maxwell Owings
   

Rooms to Rest and Refresh
The Mens & Womens Restrooms in the Studio School 

Annmarie Garden Staff and Volunteers

Annmarie Garden Collection

The bathrooms were made possible by: Choice Home Center of Dunkirk, Chapman Tile of Prince Frederick, International Tile & Marble Company of Capitol Heights, Tile by Fred, Rick Howard, Donald Stockton, Waldorf Marble, and Walls Plumbing.

Outstanding Volunteers: Pat Buehler, Sue Apple, Lynn Thomas, Donald Stockton, Fred Allen, Denny Murray, Greg Nottingham, Lee Fowling, Rick and Gail Howard, and Francoise Yohalem.

Notable Creative Input:
Women’s Restroom:
Tree in middle stall – Patrick Buehler
Mosaic effect in handicap stall – Sue Apple
Circle – Fred Allen

Men’s Restroom:
Sailboat – Lynn Thomas

Modern Petroglyphs

During the Summer of 2015, Annmarie Garden Artist-In-Residence, Kevin Sudeith, carved three large boulders that were placed in the garden.  Each boulder was carefully selected by the artist, and quarried from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.  The boulders each mark the start of a new trail.  Kevin chose carving themes for each boulder based on Southern Maryland culture and traditions - sport fishing, commercial fishery, and the Patuxent Naval Air Station.  Crabs, boats, astronauts, and more are slowly emerging over the course of the summer. 

The prints are an important documentation of the carvings and will serve as a tool to convey the carvings to remote audiences. "The prints are an integral part of the conceptual form of my work," explains Sudeith. "The spatial relationship between the stone and a sheet of paper is part of the form of the piece. Though the prints are made from archival materials, compared to the rock, they are ephemeral. Similarly my own physical presence is ephemeral compared to the life of the carved rock."

Once the printmaking has been competed, Kevin will paint and varnish the petroglyphs on the rocks. The colors are lighfast and archival as possible, but compared to the rock, they are ephemeral, lasting only a short time.

Kevin Sudeith is a Minnesota-raised and New York-based artist with a master's degree in painting and a longtime fascination with rock art.  Since 2007, he has carved his way across North America, living out of his van, depicting in stone the lives and stories of the people and places he visit.

To learn more about Kevin and his work, visit http://petroglyphist.com/

Slithering
2002
Pennsylvania field stones

Rick Clement
American, b. St Louis, MO, 1963

Gift of the artist

Annmarie Garden Collection

Annmarie's Rainbow
2008
Blown Glass

Jerry Hovanec
Port Republic, MD b. 1947

Ruthann Uithol
Port Republic, MD b. 1960

 Annmarie Garden Collection