“You must unlearn what you have been programmed to believe since birth. That software no longer serves you if you want to live in a world where all things are possible.”

~Jacqueline E. Purcell

It’s funny that just yesterday I thought I had made something really amazing in my own evolution of stone balancing. Trying something for my first time that was rumored to be quite a challenge. That was then.  This photo is the product of going out the following day and building a NEW orb and hone the process.  This time slowing down, carefully placing EVERY SINGLE STONE. This one turned out quite a bit bigger, rounder, more symmetrical, and all on a much smaller contact point. :)

All of the elements lined up perfectly once again to produce this picture… possibly my favorite to date, given those colorado sunset colors, shapes of stones, negative space, proportions, and the addition of a new element.. that **orb thingy.  I was trying to decide what kind of shape to make and decided on the ball to contrast the angular shapes of stones.. I really like the contrast between the 3-dimensional space of the orb, and the relatively 2-dimenisonal rock silhouettes.

**To see some more funky shapes with stone, some can be found in the work of Andy Goldsworthy and other land artists… Someone did actually accuse me of copyright infringement for making a circular structure with stone.. but this particular person has zero understanding of copyright law… and therefore null.

“Let yourself become living poetry.” ~ Rumi

Gravity Glue was originally created as an outlet to share my experience in the art of stone balance. To share that which I have absolutely fallen in love with… Overwhelmingly positive response often inspires me to further explore and share the possibilities.

An element in choosing particular rocks is finding combinations of shapes, textures, colors, and sizes that will compliment the whole design as well as themselves.. I usually “play” with the rocks for awhile to see how they could work with one another… from here an idea takes shape as to how i intend the elements to fit together. most of the time i KNOW it is possible before doing it.

Q: Do you have a stash of your favorite rocks along the creek so that you can find them again?

A: Not really…i usually know if I’ve used a particular rock before.. sometimes from year to year i find the same rock will have tumbled down-creek…must happen when the water rages each spring… i’ve gone back to search for a particular rock before and it had completely disappeared within 1 day… was not a small rock either. searched everywhere within a 10 foot radius. nothing… abductions on boulder creek.

“The religious man of the hunting culture is generally known as a shaman… and a shaman, is a kind of weird individual. And I mean weird in the ancient sense of the word. Not queer. But weird in the sense of magic… because he is a person of a peculiar type of sensitiviy who finds initiation into the shaman role by going off by himself for a long time, into the depths of the forests or the heights of the mountains. And in that isolation, he comes in touch with a domain of consciousness, which is known by all sorts of names… the spirit world, the ancestors, the gods…or whatever… and his knowledge of that world is supposed to give the peculiar powers of healing, of prophecy, of magic in general. The thing that you must note though about a shaman, is that his initiation is found by himself.. He does not receive inititian from an order, or a guru…”

~Alan Watts

This balance  is relatively technical as it is an example of continuous counterbalance. The top rock counterbalances the next rock down. The collective weight of the two top rocks counterbalances the next rock down.  Everything acts in unison to make a collective equilibrium.  As far as the quote, and according to many testimonials of random passers by, rock balance has a close relationship with shamanism.  Based on my own experience, there is a considerable spiritual dimension to the practice as well as the creations. Some people have described the sensation of spirits dancing among the gardens, as if each balance becomes a collective spirit of the composite rocks. Likewise, each garden has a collective spirit, which is the interaction of the all the composite balances, and so on up or down the scale of the fractal. The main point here is that the rocks have a kind of energy or chi. I noticed this characteristic since my first experiences balancing.  Sometimes I would begin building a garden to keep myself company in a lonely place.  I do not want to call myself a shaman because it is not my business to classify such. However, through my experience with nature and solitude, the quote simply reminded me of my rock balance work.  There has always been an inherent connection i’ve felt with my surroundings and the whole planet whenever I balance.  It is as if my ego disappears during the process and I am simply another force of nature possessed by some other spirit, perhaps one whose origin is within.