Saturday, January 9, 2010

The Art of Rock

If you’ve ever been to Myrtle Edwards Park in Seattle and walked along Elliott Bay, you might have seen these interesting formations near the water’s edge — rock stacks.

Rock stacks on Elliott BayThe rock stacks were created by persons practicing the art of rock balancing. Essentially, it involves placing combinations of rocks in an arrangement whose creation appears to be physically impossible by natural forces. As you might expect, patience is a requirement in order to create some of the more improbable rock stacks that seem to defy gravity.

Some of the more famous rock balancing artists, such as Andy Goldsworthy, have created large free-standing rock structures, such as The Cone:

Rock art: Andy Goldsworthy's ConeThe Rock People of Bainbridge Island
On Bainbridge Island, along the Winslow shoreline, you can find half-a-dozen rock people. While these rock sculptures are held together by mortar, they show an amazing lifelike human form using a minimal number of rocks.

Rock person balancing

You can even find a rock person walking his dog!

Rock person walking dog

Redmond Library Board

6 comments:

Katharine said...

Great blog! Lorin, as we were chatting today (at Covington Library) about the rock "formations" you found, I was thinking of Andy Goldsworthy. Glad to see you're already acquainted with his stuff!

Again, you've all done a wonderful job with this blog. I'll keep checking for new posts. Thanks for sharing!

Anna said...

Who is the artist of the ballerina sculpture?

Redmond Library Board of Trustees said...

Hi Anna. Ethan Currier has been creating rock sculptures since 2001. He was inspired while hauling boulders from his father's farm -- there was something about the possibility of form in those rocks. His largest work is a 6,000-pound granite stegosaurus! You can find more about him at http://www.ethancurrier.com/

Anonymous said...

Hi, my name is Kris Meaney, I do rock balancing at Myrtle Edwards also- especiallyl in the last few months. Here are two of my sculptures from a couple nights ago:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=218986734795589&set=a.162295480464715.44091.100000527920966&type=1&theater

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=218987698128826&set=a.162295480464715.44091.100000527920966&type=1&theater

Redmond Library Board of Trustees said...

Thanks, Kris. This is definitely a well-honed skill. You must have extraordinary patience to do this!

Anonymous said...

Hi, this is Kris again, I wanted to repost a link to my rock balanced sculptures, thats not on facebook - its open to the public, and has alot of my work.

Thanks for your interest!

http://cid-d6c3c37574580b48.photos.live.com/browse.aspx/Balanced%20Rock%20Sculptures?uc=2