Diary of a Rock Balancer ::
Stone Balance Art created and photographed by Michael Grab — 18 July 2016 — Fjallsárlón, Iceland ::
this balance was quite the challenge (and risky with so much top over such a small curled spine)…
sitting required, 3+ hours
zero hinged on placing the biggest rock (2nd to top), precisely the first time in order to be perfectly countered by the top…while maintaining integrity of the spine. luckily it was a nice sunny afternoon. . . finally hit zero ~ 30 minutes pre sunset.
a lesson through all this practice says that collapse is natural, inevitable. Maybe painful, maybe liberating, maybe both. with my creations, i know each one will fall — often before i’m ready. often with mixed feelings.. on one hand i feel “Yes! i’m free to create something new!”, on the other hand, i’m losing the known in exchange for a knew unknown.
one thing also to note. once i have a balance like this, it is very difficult to change or substitute a different rock somewhere, cuz all these angles are exceptionally precise for this instance of balance. the most adjustment i can get away with on this without destroying all of it, is maybe a slight swivel of the top to show a slightly different face. otherwise it’s probable collapse during readjustment, which is most risky under large top weights.. better to just induce collapse and start again. unless of course you can handle the unbalance — rebalance process like a ninja — in silence.
this photo makes me think: “zeitgeist”
like i’m curious what happens if we let it all collapse. would prolly be ugly beyond description for a short time, but it may be good in the long run. . . may not be, who knows.. tis a conundrum of our time.
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