Mystery sculptor caught in the act

Phillip A. Long, rock balancer guy, creating at Frank Bay this morning. (See related story below.)

Phillip says an aunt, who lives in Martha’s Vineyard, inspired him a few years back with her rock sculptures. (But she’s a “stacker”, and he’s a “balancer.”) “I’ve always been a fan of rocks. I’d run around with pockets full of them when I was a kid,” he says. Phillip owns a trucking company in Virginia and does photography and rock balancing on the side. His biggest was more than 7 feet tall.

He also says people run up to his statues and try to hug them all the time. And they immediately fall over. “People don’t realize these big rocks are just balanced on top of each other. At least so far, nobody’s had a big rock fall on their foot.”

This was also only Phillip’s second trip to St. John, but he says he and his wife will make a yearly habit out of February visits.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 9:56 am and is filed under General News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Mystery sculptor caught in the act”

1. St. John
   February 10th, 2008 10:14
   1

   WOW! That’s awesome! How does he do that???

2. Andrew Burnett
   February 10th, 2008 11:05
   2

   This reminds me of some of the sculptures at Blue Beach on the hike out to Ram Head.

3. gilbert
   February 10th, 2008 12:16
   3

   First. This’s guy is amazing.

4. Fran
   February 10th, 2008 13:19
   4

   The Andy Goldsworthy of the Caribean!

5. Ruth
   February 10th, 2008 16:26
   5

   Note To Self:
   “Never Hug a Rock Sculpture.”
   -Ruth

6. rosemary thyme
   February 10th, 2008 18:05
   6

   nothing to do with this great artist….. but….. does anyone know what happened to the woman that was selling timeshares for the westin in cruz bay only to leave quickly once learned she was wanted by the fbi for hawaii arrest warrant? just curious if she had been caught or not…

7. great lick
   February 10th, 2008 19:03
   7

   who the h e double toothpicks is andy goldowlsthy???

8. phil
   February 11th, 2008 13:04
   8

   Thank you soooooooo much for the comments and the notice!!!!!!!!!!!

9. Sandman Jr.
   February 11th, 2008 23:39
   9

   I absolutely love the sculptures. Looking at them has brought me happiness. Thank you Phil for your creative enrichment of the Virgin Island culture. You are one of us.

10. Zane D.
    February 12th, 2008 12:50
    10

    I’ll admit that rock balancing sounded kind of lame until I checked out the pics…that’s pretty amazing!