Designed by nature, built by hand: Andy Brown found his creative flow in stone and water

By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus

While most landscapers work in mulch, soil and seed, Andy Brown works with stone and water, often building streams where there once were none. The results can vary from a simple fountain to a koi-filled pond, or even a waterfall cascading down a backyard bluff into the Tennessee River.

“I can look at something and think, ‘I can make a fountain out of that.’ I can make a fountain out of anything,” Brown said. “All I’ve got to do is look at it, and if I can get water to it, I’m going to turn it into a water feature of some kind.”

A musing similar to that one was exactly how Visionary Aquatic Designs was born, although at the time, Brown saw it more as a hobby. When he built his first backyard pond in the 1980s, he didn’t expect he’d be flowing those self-taught skills into a new business a decade later.

Brown grew up in the Lakeside Highlands neighborhood in Florence, overlooking Wilson Lake, where he and his brothers spent most of their days in the woods, hiking, fishing and exploring the riverbanks below Wilson Dam.

“We were always in the water. It was an amazing way to grow up,” he said, admitting that those childhood memories stayed with him even as an adult trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life.

Brown, now 67, first forged a career in the medical field. He spent his 20s working as a respiratory therapist at Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital, but by his 30s came a string of career changes.

He worked for a stint as admissions director for a vocational school in Florida before he became licensed to sell insurance. That also didn’t stick. Brown then partnered with his brother in a family run steam cleaning business. Eventually he found more hands-on creative work in designing and installing vinyl decks, piers and fencing for a company once based in Killen.

“I’ve always wanted to work outside or be outside, and that’s what kind of put me there,” Brown said. “The people I was working for then were getting ready to retire, and they wanted me to buy the business.”

By then, Brown had already built a few water fountains and backyard ponds for himself, family members and friends. Hesitant to take on the offer, he consulted a friend who he felt was business savvy. Brown has just built one of his largest water features for the friend.

“I told her that I really didn’t want to buy this vinyl fencing business, and that I thought I’d really like to do something else,” he recalled. “She looked at me and said, ‘Just look at my backyard. What do you think?’ I told her I thought it looked fantastic, and she said, ‘I do too. I think you ought to try and do this for a living.’”

Brown decided to take a leap of faith. That was in 1994.

Thirty-one years later, Brown has a team of employees, a warehouse, a list of clients all over the Tennessee Valley who depend on him for maintenance on projects he’s completed over the years, and a waiting list for new waterscape projects that Brown estimates could take him two years to complete without adding new clients into the mix.

Since constructing that first water feature in 1987, Brown’s aquatic endeavors have evolved in beauty and complexity, yet his skills are completely self-taught.

Learning his craft at a time before Google, YouTube or TikTok DIY tutorials, Brown turned to books and relied on his own knowledge of construction and design. Most of all, he let nature guide his hand.

“Back when I was working for the career school, I’d be driving around in my suit and tie, and I’d see a rock or something I liked. I’d get out and collect rocks here and there from all over the countryside,” he said.

It’s a hobby that even his wife, Lisa, had gotten involved in early on as he continued seeking inspiration for his fountains and waterscapes.

“We’d go on adventures, just driving down country roads,” he recalled. “That girl could stick her head out the window and say, ‘Stop here.’ I’d look and wonder what on earth she was talking about, but we’d put on our rubber boots and go out in the woods. Then suddenly we’d come up on a little stream and follow it to the most beautiful waterfalls that probably no one has ever seen.”

While he can’t choose a favorite among his creations, one of Brown’s most memorable projects is the water sculpture he’s dubbed the “Dam Fountain.” The title is, in part, a pun meant to poke fun at the daunting task it was to complete the monument, but also it’s named after the structure that it was crafted to resemble.

In 2012, the miniature of Wilson Dam was unveiled on Seminary Street right next to another Florence icon, the Shoals Community Theatre.

“When the city approached me about doing something, they wanted me to come up with an idea,” Brown said. “I offered them three different plans, but that one was the one that immediately popped into my head. I had grown up in view of Wilson Dam. I rode my bicycle over it, and my brothers and I would go down to the locks and hang out until they’d run us off. I thought I knew everything about that dam until I built that fountain.”

Brown said it took some “reverse-engineering,” but he also took a little inspiration from reading about the construction of Wilson Dam in the 1920s.

“A lot of prayers went into that one,” he added with a laugh. “I tried to build it like they built the dam, in sections and segments. I didn’t know if it was actually going to work until we pulled the form off it. When it turned out like it did, I couldn’t believe it. I probably couldn’t do that again to save my life.”

Designing fountains and flowing ponds were tasks that also harkened back to an interest in sketching and architectural design that Brown had picked up from his high school art classes. But it isn’t just the creative, artsy side of his career that he enjoys.

Brown said he also appreciates the more technical aspects of his job that see him digging through mud, fitting in liners and water containers, assembling pumps and engineering filtration systems.

“I love it all. My wife thinks I’m killing myself out there, heavy lifting these rocks in the heat, but I tell her all the time, I’m having the time of my life,” he said. “I tell everybody, we don’t work. We play.”

Still, the job can be extremely labor intensive, Brown admits. Projects he’s undertaken can range from installing small birdbaths to assembling fountains using 300 tons of rock, and at times, even sculpting his own faux rock.

“It’s a lot of fun, but it most definitely has helped me keep my physical condition in a pretty good state,” he said. “I don’t feel my age at all. I try to outwork my helpers, and they’re all considerably younger than I am. If I get to a point where I can’t do it anymore, I’ll give it up, but until that time, I’m going to show off and show them how it’s done.”