Thursday, March 8, 2012

Cairns

True strength is delicate.
~ Louise Berliawsky Nevelson


Making cairns (balanced rock stacks) has many purposes -- it's used as a way to mark territory, a form of meditation, and an art.

Two cairns by Patrick aka the Buddha Collector, Rotterdam, New York


Aviemore Cairn

Cairns Series LX
by Hammer and Coil

Cairn in Ireland
photo by Chad K

from Andy Goldsworthy's Three Cairns
Photo by Phil Walsh

Fungal Rock Balance
by Mark Kelly

Moncrieffe Island, Perth, Scotland
by Murray Barnes

Links:

Helpful notes on building a cairn
The Art of Rock Balancing
Professional rock stackers

4 comments:

HWY said...

Beautiful cairns.

There's a nature park in Southwestern Virginia where visitors can add stones (usually small to medium ones) to several cairns "in progress." Really nice to contemplate and be a part of.

GretchenJoanna said...

Thank you so much for the collection! I love stones and cairns, and to have a few to contemplate in one place is very nice.

Author Amok said...

Beautiful. The art of balance.

Heidi Mordhorst said...

So much variety in these! Lovely to see you on Thursday, and I adore my minicairn. I guess I was thinking Andy Goldsworthy when I built the I-didn't-know-it-was-a-cairn in the Lake District last summer. I'll send you a photo. : )