HAMAKUA — Building rock walls can take a lot of patience. Just ask Geno Bergmann. He’s been building rock walls on the Big Island, Oahu and Maui for more than 50 years, some as long as 380 feet and seven
HAMAKUA — Building rock walls can take a lot of patience. Just ask Geno Bergmann. He’s been building rock walls on the Big Island, Oahu and Maui for more than 50 years, some as long as 380 feet and seven feet tall.
“Constructing a wall can take anywhere from three months to a year, but some projects take years to complete, depending if I’m restoring, adding additional feet to a wall or starting from scratch,” he said.
A Southern California native, Bergmann moved to Hawaii in 1957. With a degree from the International Typography Union, he initially used what he learned operating a printing press for newspapers. Several years later, he applied the same knowledge to painting, sculpture designs and rock wall masonry.
“When I had an art shop in Kona, Robin Hicks from Hilo did county jobs. Business was slow, so he asked me one day if I wanted to do a job. Moving a wall, I learned the mechanics of taking it apart and putting it back together, like a puzzle,” Bergmann said.
One of his favorite jobs was building his own three-story tiki house on Alii Drive in Kona where he lived from 1965 to the ‘80s. Restoring a rock wall that surrounded the property was part of the project.
Bergmann marvels at the traditional uhau humu pohaku, or dry stacking, seen in archaeological remains of stone platforms near Kailua used for different purposes by native Hawaiians long ago. He has had other influences as well.
“Stone walls date back to the Romans,” Bergmann said. “In all of Europe there is beautiful stone work. But some of the most beautiful I’ve seen is in Japan. For me it’s been a self-taught profession. You acquire a style of your own.”
Bergmann looks young for his age. At 83, he has lived in North Hawaii for the last 10 years and continues to work on several projects simultaneously. Using a variety of stones from around the island, his signature is a black concrete stain as an accent.
Bergmann is selective in finding just the right stones to use.
“If working from scratch, I gather materials first, build the base and then interconnect the stones,” he said. “I select by my psyche what will fit and what won’t. It’s very intuitive, as an artist. A lot of it has to do with the color and thickness. I like to look for unusual shapes too. It’s about spacing. The pieces fit together like puzzle pieces. My clients let me choose and that makes it interesting. The finished product should show your style. It’s the visual look of conformity.”
He most often works alone.
“He’s in his own world while working,” said his wife, Kauakea Winston. “He’s an artist, not a laborer. When people walk by, they ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ at his work in progress.”
It’s hard to put a price on a well-constructed stone wall. Projects are most often charged by square footage, labor and materials. Prices vary and for Bergmann there is rarely a deadline.
“I take my time and articulate the space between the stones, with the face of the stone flush to create a flat surface. Sometimes I have to cut or trim the stone. A good wall lasts forever,” he said.
An artist at heart, he also enjoys carving tiki statues and creating sand paintings. Depending on size, creating a tiki can take as little as one afternoon or as long as three weeks, as in the case of a 9-foot sculpture he recently created for a client.
“People discover I have many talents,” he said. “You can just take a piece of wood and make something interesting.”
Bergmann has no interest in retiring.
“There’s too much to do, places to go and rocks to find,” he said. “So many rocks, so little time.”
