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Transcript/ScriptCONNECT Balancing Rock Artist
HEADLINE: Creating Harmony Through Balanced Rocks
TEASER: Artist Michael Grab shows us how he creates his balanced rock sculptures
PUBLISHED AT: 02/26/2024
BYLINE: Aaron Fedor
DATELINE: Boulder, Colorado
VIDEOGRAPHER: Aaron Fedor
PRODUCER: Kathleen McLaughlin, Kyle Dubiel, Zdenko Novacki
COURTESIES:
SCRIPT EDITORS: AK, MJ
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT: 3:00
VID APPROVED BY: AK, MJ
TYPE: VPKGF
EDITOR NOTES: ))
((Eds: This is a self-narrated feature.))
((INTRO))
[[Michael Grab, renowned for his gravity-defying rock-balancing sculptures, discovers harmony and unity amidst the ever-changing natural elements surrounding him. Aaron Fedor brings us the story from Boulder, Colorado.]]
((NATS))
((Michael Grab, Artist))
Like right now, I'm kind of just gathering a selection of rocks that I'm not sure if I'll use or not, but they're just possibilities to work in different sequences with other rocks. Boulder Creek is a bit of a gravity glue graveyard because I'll often find rocks that I balanced like four or five years ago. Like this one, for example, is balanced in 2019. This one in 2018.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
((Michael Grab, Artist))
Well, when I first started doing this, I just did it in the summer as a way to keep cool on hot days. But then I started to get fishing waders, and come out in the fall, and then the winter,
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
and started noticing that there's all these different elements at play. Like the funnest thing about working in the winter is being able to splash water on this, and the whole thing starts to freeze and like gets icicles and things like that. So, there's just a very dynamic kind of land art element depending on the season. Generally, I push myself to get out here every day or as much as I can all throughout the year, but it also just depends where I am. Also, I'm not always like in a freezing environment in the winter.
((Michael Grab, Artist))
Like a structure like this, for example, is not going to exist unless nature allows it
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
through whatever wind activity or weather is going on. Like, that's why I consider this a form of yoga or like stone yoga, because very literally, it's taking all these separate parts and balancing them in a certain way to become a unified whole. It's creating some kind of union, but also that's going on with myself, this sense of separate itself from nature. It's kind of like creating a yoga between myself and the natural environment. So, like when I'm building, and working with these vibrations, and tuning into the moment, and finally ending up at this zero point where it's all balanced, and I can let go, that zero point is where I can't really distinguish between myself and nature. It's like a very unified moment. My art was this huge leap into the unknown. For anyone that might be scared to take a leap into the unknown, I would say, you really have to trust your instinct and what your heart is telling you,
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
and that may still end up in a situation that might not work, but it might. I guess, I want to translate some of what I feel to other people, which is just kind of this sense of peace and magic.
((Courtesy: Michael Grab))
((NATS))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
Subtitles / Dubbing AvailableNo
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateFebruary 26, 2024 14:20 EST
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
