FARIA BEACH : Rock Art--Testaments to Free Time

Along the Rincon Parkway just north of Ventura sit tiny towers of smooth stones shrouded in gray seaside fog. Some are assembled in fanciful patterns and intricate designs atop giant boulders, like a forest of baby rock trees.

To the passing motorist, the delicately balanced formations could be confused for misplaced trail markers or a mini-Stonehenge.

But rock artists who constructed some of the teetering towers say they have no purpose, meaning or significance other than as testaments to beachside boredom.

“We went on a walk and saw a guy do it and thought, ‘What an artistic genius,’ and we went back to camp and discovered we were geniuses too,” said Terry Parker of Simi Valley, who spent the weekend camped along the Rincon Parkway with his wife, Sandy.

“It’s very contagious,” he said. “People walk by and it just blooms.”

His wife said that another time the couple camped there, rock artists were everywhere.

“The last time we came down, we had about 40 [formations]--we had the whole campground doing it,” she said.

Charles Tello has patrolled that strip of west Pacific Coast Highway north of Faria County Park for the Ventura County Parks Department for 15 years.

He began noticing peculiar rock formations cropping up five years ago.

“People,” he said. “I guess they just get kind of bored and pile rocks together.”

While the Parkers acknowledged that boredom did trigger their dabbling in rock art, they say it should be viewed as a valid form of creative expression.

“I’ve been a frustrated artist my whole life,” said Parker, who runs a pool service. “The rocks are my palette.”