Still More Guest Reflections on Balancing

Stones are their own forms, their combination is an event within their own shared possibility. It can't be known until it's there. Therefore the process is as much not doing as doing - but it is both, or it is liminal to both. If I listen appropriately, I facilitate the unique attraction certain stones have for each other. The rest is a mating ritual in wild mind, aware to the root. - artist George Quasha - full text of essay

George's book Axial Stones is reviewed on this site.

Stacking stones is not essentially a visual activity, although the results are attractive. You can't just go from the look of the stone. Instead you have to feel for the lines of inner balance, the hidden gravity of the stone. It's a lot like dealing with people - they're not what they appear from the dents and bulges on the outside. Instead it's really about finding the merits of their inner value, their hidden gravity. - stacker Lynsey Gedye

It is clearly an art form that appeals to me, an amateur naturalist with an interest in mathematics. Unlike a painter, I don't have to be concerned with a large time commitment or with the problem of later changing my creation. I am intrigued with the relationship between the setting in which i choose to balance rocks and the sculpture formed by them. I also enjoy it as an exercise in the impermanence of it all. - Learner Scott Wachenheim

I get a kick when people watching say it's impossible to stack another rock on a pile and I manage to get to or three more on there, but not as much as when I am just being busy and don't notice that there's an audience. When I came across rock-on-rock-on.com I heartily laughed and found an inspiration to continue doing what to so many people looks silly: balancing rocks. - Learner Hans Feenstra

Mother Nature, the greatest artist in existance, is beyond all others as a creator of Art. For those of us who use her materials to create new art, stones are always a favorite. They're old, they're new, they're Magic, as Bill Dan has demonstrated. Here in western N.C., we love to stack rocks or build Totems as an expression of our connection to Nature and each other. As a proper life requires balance, patience and a good foundation, so does Rock Stacking. As a group activity, it provides wholesome, affordable re-creation and allows both individual and group interaction with Mother. Most of us here build totems as garden art with the long range goal of recreating Eden and Banishing the Flaming Swords. Rock on. - stackers Phillip and Venus Bowman