Stone Sculptor Balancing Act with City
Boulder Prevents Stone Balancing then Recants
More on how famous stone balancer was almost forced to leave Boulder for his art:
Michael Grab has an amazing ability to balance stones.
Appropriately his website is called “GravityGlue” and that is precisely what happens. He knows how to position and combine various stones into seemingly impossible positions.
The artist has lived in Boulder, Colorado for the past 7 years. He frequently creates sculptures in the Boulder Creek there and was demonstrating his technique during the city wide festival this year.
Boulder police officers informed him he was not allowed to balance rocks int he creek, and threatened to issue him a citation if he continued.
“I think rock stacking is kind of confused with that. It’s not really making dams or anything, it’s just balancing some rocks up that fall right back down.”Grab makes a point of knocking down his sculptures before he leaves the area, and encourages anyone who balances rocks to make towers to knock them down before they leave a site to prevent them from becoming a risk to passers-by and therefore being seen as a liability to local government agencies.
The way the City code is written Grab could be cited for balancing rocks in the creek. Grab was given a warning, but then went to social media to get the word out about his art and hoping to get support for his case.
“We started getting calls from all over the world including one from Hong Kong, so I sat down and read the code,” Boulder City Attorney Carr says, “And it doesn’t seem to apply to stacking rocks.”
Fortunately for Boulder and for Grab, Carr’s office has decided that balancing boulders in Boulder will continue. If it hadn’t, Grab for one, would have gone somewhere else to practice his art.
text
Original article by Elizabeth Miller of the Boulder Weekly
Images of Stone Balancing and artist Michael Grab from Gravity Glue
For more information, please visit Michael Grab’s Facebook page or website
