Gravitational Pull

Michael Grab finds balance in art and in life

In search of obsidian in Colorado’s Boulder Creek one afternoon, CU Boulder sociology major turned naturalist artist Michael Grab and his friend found themselves captivated by the abundance of variety in the rocks surrounding them. Examining each stone, they began experimentally piling the rocks on top of one another, and unexpectedly, their afternoon turned into hours of transforming the creek into a rock-garden, as curious passersby stopped to observe. Within just a couple of years, Grab found this unforeseen activity consuming his free-time, and from that fortuitous afternoon GravityGlue.com was born. Now a stone balancing artist, Grab—who remains open to the many possibilities of natural therapies like cannabis, meditation and art therapies not unlike his balancing art—is in collaboration with nature. He finds connection and energy in the magic of equilibrium, creating rock sculptures throughout his environment.

Grab, spends his time traversing the creek beds and canyons of Colorado, scouting locals with just the right temperament for his work to form. Often misinterpreted as photo manipulations, his sculptures appear nearly impossible, an illusion of weightlessness as rocks of greatly disproportioned sizes are delicately poised atop one another. Bridging landscapes, his stone arches will leave you pondering gravity, while a massive sphere of rocks balances unreasonably on a small stone, morphing the space into some uncharted surrealist environment. In a spectacular achievement, and defying logical explanation, his craft is an unexpected encounter of natural materials, highly designed and fully dependent on its surroundings.

“One of the most satisfying parts of this art is destroying or unlearning the limitations of thinking, and opening myself and others up to the realization of new possibilities,” Grab says. “That in itself is infinitely inspiring.”

Conscious of his respect and responsibility toward nature, as well as the safety of those lucky enough to stumble upon one of his sculptures, his works are often collapsed by Grab shortly after their completion. Finding his work in serendipitous locals is just a product of his practice; the bulk of his work resides in the balancing process as he creates them. The impermanence of his work lends his practice even further toward a performance element, which has come to hold great appeal for Grab. Thriving on the energy of live performance, he finds the meditative process amplified in a crowd of onlookers, and is now recognized as a performance artist as he performs his rock balances at various venues and parties, while also holding workshops on the art of stone balancing.

Focusing on central points within nature, Grab’s work sources the inevitable challenges faced in our daily lives. His rock sculptures leave the viewer contemplating the possibility of such a task, generating an environment which directs the viewer into a space of awareness among tranquility and chaos.

Always an artist in one way or another, Grab’s history of dabbling in the arts has led him to connect with other stone balancers around the world, continually feeding ideas and energy off one another.

www.gravityglue.com

Nature Therapy

Michael Grab says he’s realized the therapeutic and educational impact inherent in his process. “Seeing the way rock balance has improved my own life skills, makes me very confident with its application for teaching kids and anyone, really,” says Grab. “The practice teaches a person how to think and problem-solve, how to exist purely in the moment, how to relax and meditate.” He says he hopes this form of alternative nature therapy can be applied in the treatment of PTSD as well as various learning disabilities in children and adults. Colorado has an open mind and heart to natural therapies, as one of the few states that have legalized marijuana, and Grab hopes Colorado will also be open to his natural therapies in a similarly supportive way.