Jean-Marc Flack

Jean-Marc’s artistic approach to ecological landscape design couples creative and intellectual practices. In his gardens, beauty, color, line, and form are in dialogue with horticulture, botany, and geology. Each project is an expressive, site-specific response to the client’s property, architecture, and lifestyle, as well as to the broader historical and ecological context of the site.

Jean Marc’s experience in garden and landscape design spans nearly two decades. Hortulus Animae was founded in 2015, in New York’s Hudson Valley, and currently serves discerning clients both near and far.

Prior to horticulture, Jean-Marc spent 20 years as a fashion-industry executive. He is certified in Sustainable Garden Design and Landscape Design through the storied New York Botanical Garden. Previously, he earned a BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Georgetown University, as well as a French Baccalauréat in Philosophy through the Lycée Français d'Athènes. The son of a diplomat, Jean-Marc’s background and passion for world travel has instilled a cultural and artistic awareness that informs the broad range of references applied to his designs.

Jean-Marc resides under the Blackhead Mountain Escarpment in the Catskills with his husband, choreographer Stephen Petronio, who founded his dance residency center on 172 acres of protected forest. Their combined vision aligns art, culture, and ecology through a singular lens.