Artist May Rebuild Rock Sculptures

City officials said Wednesday that a homeless man who gained local fame for his rock sculptures at Surfers Point will not be prevented from rebuilding some of his structures, even though city workers tore several down this week citing public safety concerns.

Authorities said many of the piles of balanced rocks, some in the shape of castles and Christmas trees, towered too high and were in danger of toppling over. A few people phoned the city with concerns that the artworks, if they tumbled, could hurt children playing nearby. So some of Stuart Finch’s works were dismantled Tuesday.

Finch, a familiar face to many of the surfers who meander past his artwork on the way to the ocean, is finishing a five-day jail sentence for failing to pay a bill at a Ventura motel.

“We’re strictly trying to strike a balance,” City Manager Donna Landeros said. “There is a lot of public interest in it; a lot of people enjoy the sculptures. So we tried to allow the artwork there to remain while removing the ones that are tall enough that they could have toppled and hurt someone.”

Landeros said the city, however, would not stop Finch from returning to the area to create other sculptures. And future artwork will remain up, added parks manager Mike Montoya, as long as they are small enough that they do not present a danger to pedestrians walking around them.

Montoya said the city has been removing some of Finch’s wobblier works from the beach for several months. Some workers have even talked to the homeless artist, asking him to keep his creations smaller as a precaution. Though he has agreed with the city’s request, occasionally the works still are considered too big to be safe, Montoya said.

“Those rocks really aren’t held together with anything other than gravity,” Councilman Jim Friedman added. “And the bottom line is that the city has the ultimate responsibility for public safety.”