A few weeks ago as I was rolling along one of Ottawa's bike paths along the Ottawa River, I came across some fascinating artwork built in the shallows of the river at Remic Rapids. John Felice Ceprano is an artist who uses the natural rocks to form stunning balancing artwork. All peices of work are found locally and are never altered in any way. John manually builds his art allowing the rocks themselve dictate the form the sculpture will take. He has been doing this work every summer since 1986. And I can see why people flock to look at his work. It is astounding the configurations the rocks take. The only thing he uses to balance one rock on the next are smaller stones used as shims to keep the rocks balanced. I've sat and watched him work. Back-breaking.
Not far from where I was staying at the Y I went past a house and she had a huge work from John standing in her yard. She told me that John had used glue to keep the stones on place. But it is only an exception when the balancing stones are in private collections that he uses glue. The stones in the river are made especially to allow nature to bring them down. And then he rebuilds the next summer. I have seen some photos of his work. Some actually do stay up all winter long.
Take a look.For some reason his webpage isn't up at the moment but you can see a sample here.
http://www.site.yahoo.com/ecoart/jon.html
The really great thing is now I am even closer and can go relax and enjoy as often as I can