If you know Peter Juhl, it’s probably not surprising that his cell phone background shows seven rocks that sit perfectly balanced in a curved tower, seemingly impossibly perched upon a Lake Superior boulder.

“Zig Zag Zen II,” a sculpture by Eagan rock-balancing artist Peter Juhl, was created June 24, 2016, along Lake Superior. Besides being Juhl’s cell phone background as of Dec. 2024, this particular photo is one of Juhl’s most popular works and has been shown in galleries and hospitals. (Photo by Peter Juhl)

Of all the so-called ‘temporary sculptures’ the Eagan-based rock-balancing artist has created over three decades, this one — “Zig Zag Zen II” — is one of his favorites.

There’s no sleight-of-hand, no secret sauce, no wizard behind the curtain. Just rocks.

“It’s like the opposite of a magic trick,” Juhl said. “A magician does something that’s fake, but if he’s good at it, you want to believe it. It looks so real. I’m doing something totally real — but if you do it well, people will accuse you of using glue.”

Juhl, 67 and now retired, picked up the hobby during a family trip to Lake Superior in 1994, he said. His wife was reading a book, his kids were playing on the rocky beach and, well, he was kind of bored. So he started balancing rocks to kill time, found he had a knack for it and, since then, has embraced it full-on.

He’s attended international balancing conferences, shown photos of his sculptures in local galleries and hospitals, written a book on the subject and regularly teaches classes, including workshops in February, March, April and June at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Juhl posts photos of his sculptures on his website, temporarysculpture.com.

The key to a successful balance, he said, is to position your top rock over a divot or indentation in the bottom rock — even a small chip or pockmark will do — and gently rotate the top rock until you feel it grip into place, and you can slowly take your hand away. On a basic level, he explained, you’re establishing three points of contact between the rocks, like a tripod, and aligning their centers of gravity. It helps, too, if the shape of the divot roughly corresponds to the position of your top rock: A circular indentation will be better for a direct vertical balance, for example, and a longer, skinnier niche might help you balance a more oblong rock at an angle.

“At first, you have to think about it a lot, but after a while, it’s second-nature and your hands just do it,” Juhl said. “It’s almost like a mini ‘pop’ in your brain when it sticks, this little delight in the fingers. As you move the rock around, you feel the little vibrations as it clicks in.”

Rock balancing artist Peter Juhl of Eagan demonstrates how he looks for rocks that fit together while at the Pioneer Press offices in St. Paul on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

‘It’s about the process’

Oh, you’re a comedian? Tell me a joke. You’re a chef? Cook me dinner. You’re a rock-balancing artist? Take some rocks and make me a tower.

It doesn’t exactly work like that.

“Nesting,” a sculpture by Eagan rock-balancing artist Peter Juhl, was created July 26, 2024, along Lake Superior. Juhl, who has been balancing rocks for three decades, said he often spends significantly more time searching for suitable rocks than actually creating balancing art. (Photo by Peter Juhl)

Sure, Juhl could probably pick up the first two rocks he finds on a North Shore beach and do a quick-and-dirty balance. But making a truly visually interesting sculpture, something worth photographing as art, takes a fair amount of prep work, he said.

It’s not uncommon for him to spend hours or even the entire first day of a weekend trip scurrying around the beach gathering rocks, he said: fitting them into his pockets, loading them into the crook of his arm, tucking them under his chin.

“I spend more time looking for rocks than I do with the actual balance,” he said. “It’s like preparing a good meal. I’ll spend all day making a really nice meal and then it’s gone in 20 minutes. It’s about the process.”

And indeed, Juhl’s rock sculptures rarely live to see that 20-minute mark. Every one of his creations is disassembled in short order: Some collapse on their own or are blown over after a few minutes — hopefully not before Juhl has photographed them, though he’s not always so lucky. Occasionally, he’ll turn on a slow-motion camera and toss a pebble, for a sort of controlled demolition. Maybe a child or a bird gets involved.

Rock balancing artist Peter Juhl of Eagan balances three rocks at the Pioneer Press offices in St. Paul on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

This deconstruction is not optional, Juhl said: It’s one crucial difference between his “ephemeral art” and the amateur rock pile-building that has sparked fierce debate. One popular North Shore Facebook group has been known to remove any rock photos, Juhl said, and some beaches elsewhere in the country have begun banning people from touching rocks altogether.

Some opposition to casual rock-piling is practical: Permanent, purpose-built stacks called cairns are sometimes used as hiking trail markers or cultural symbols, and confusion between real cairns and one-off rock stacks could lead people astray. Other concerns are environmental — over ecosystem disruption; over the threat of falling rocks on passing wildlife — or aesthetic.

And to Juhl, these concerns are perfectly legitimate; they’re just concerns that apply to activities that are markedly different from ones practiced by him and the relatively small number of other rock-balancers around the world. During his workshops, Juhl teaches the guidelines he abides by: Don’t dig rocks out of the ground or the sand, don’t pull them out of water, don’t use ones that have plants or animals growing from them, don’t modify or damage the rocks, disassemble your sculptures.

“I do encourage people not to stack and just leave them stable,” he said. “A lot of people get angry. And if I go to a beach and there’s stacks all over the place, it spoils the natural beauty, so I use a Leave No Trace philosophy.”

For Juhl, the fleeting nature of his art — here today, but tomorrow, it’ll be as if it had never existed — is precisely the point. Over the years, though, he said, he’s been pleasantly surprised to discover that photos of his work resonate with people even in contexts completely separate from the meditativeness of balancing the rocks themselves.

“There’s some tension between the rocks, and you almost think people would get nervous looking at (photos) — they’re just about to fall down, like a balloon about to pop — but it’s the opposite,” he said. “There’s some comfort there: ‘How does this thing even exist?’ But there it sits, and there’s some order in the universe that you never noticed before.”

Rock balancing artist Peter Juhl of Eagan balances rocks at the Pioneer Press offices in St. Paul on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

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