Michael Grab is a land artist who “creates astonishing towers and orbs of balanced rocks using little more than patience and an astonishing sense of balance. Grab says the art of stone balancing has been practiced by various cultures around the world for centuries and that he personally finds the process of balancing to be therapeutic and meditative.” 

Over the past few years of practicing rock balance, simple curiosity has evolved into therapeutic ritual, ultimately nurturing meditative presence, mental well-being, and artistry of design. Alongside the art, setting rocks into balance has also become a way of showing appreciation, offering thanksgiving, and inducing meditation. Through manipulation of gravitational threads, the ancient stones become a poetic dance of form and energy, birth and death, perfection and imperfection.

Head over to Colossal to view more of Michael’s awesome artwork and then visit his portfolio to see some more. You’ll also find videos of him working over on YouTube.

[via Colossal]

From the Department of Awesome Natural Wonders comes this impressive geological formation - an enormous rock perfectly balanced atop a smooth mound. Located deep inside the forests of Finland, the balancing rock is called Kummakivi:

“There is still no scientific explanation for how the rock, whose given name translates as ‘strange rock’ in Finnish, has wound up in such a perplexing position.”

However it happened, it’s a pretty awesome sight. But we don’t recommend standing under it for too long.

[via My Modern Metropolis]

Hirotoshi Itoh (previously featured here) is a Japanese stonemason-turned-artist who uses stones found in a river near his home to create whimsical sculptures that give the stones seemingly impossible features like clasps or zippers. He already sculpts the stones to convincingly transform them into objects that look like they’re made of soft, flexible paper or fabric instead of cold, hard stone. Pretty awesome.

[via Design You Trust]

Reminiscent of the work of Russian street artist Nomerz (previously featured here), Brazilian street artist Andre Muniz Gonzaga also gives life to rocks, walls and other inanimate urban surfaces by painting wonderful faces on them. Andre’s sites are carefully selected and often found in run down or poverty-stricken urban areas. We can’t help but wonder if he spots the faces lurking beneath the interesting textures and contours of his chosen surfaces and simply brings them out using his artistic skills. (We also suspect that those walls and rocks might have a tendency to blink or wink as soon as you’ve passed by.)

[via Hi-Fructose]