For the week of February 4, 2018 Northeast Ohio Rocks! honors Russ Reynolds as Artist of the Week. Below Russ shares his story.
My name is Russ. I’m 53 years old and I live in central Ohio. I have no art/craft background. Just an average guy. I found a little rock at a hotel a while back while traveling in Detroit that someone painted with no name, group or hashtag. It really grabbed my attention because it said, “dance like no one is watching”. Naturally I didn’t dance because….well, I can’t dance! But it peaked my attention. I posted it on Facebook and several people mentioned joining a rock painting group. What better group to join than Northeast Ohio Rocks?! So here I am!
I don’t have a favorite thing or subject to paint. No specific style. I try to paint something different each time and I guess that’s to challenge me as much as anything. I like to push myself. I may change that in the future but I’m just enjoying what I do now. I’ve found a couple odd shaped rocks and I like to try to bring something out of the rock by painting it. A lot of times when I’m alone painting, I’ll turn on classical music. Seems to help get me in the right frame of mind. I find it very relaxing to paint.
My inspiration to paint rocks is simply the fact that it makes someone else smile. I find it a great way to pay it forward. I’ve seen it firsthand and it’s a wonderful thing to observe. Someone walks by, notices the rock and pauses. They look around to see if anyone is watching them. They lean down and pick it up, flip it over then they get a big smile. They look around again as they clutch the rock and walk off. I’ve also witnessed little kids find a rock and jump up and down in joy! That’s why I do it. How incredible is it to make someone you don’t even know smile? I haven’t painted a lot of rocks. Maybe 150-200.
I enjoy all the people in this group. There are a lot of great souls here! The people who do this are also giving forward and it’s awesome to be a part of Northeast Ohio Rocks! I love scrolling down the feed looking at people’s rock creations! I like seeing posts of people who have found the rocks! It’s very humbling when people take the time to “like”, “love”, “wow” or comment on rocks that I paint and post here.
I never saw myself painting rocks. Now I can’t see myself stopping.
For the Week of February 18, 2018
For the week of February 18, 2018 Northeast Ohio Rocks! honors Leslie Bond as Artist of the Week. Below Leslie shares his story.
I can’t say that I have a favorite medium. I have a rather short attention span so I will go from one thing to the next.
I discovered Northeast Ohio Rocks in my Facebook feed and fell in love with the concept of spreading kindness and joy through something as simple as a painted rock. I have painted somewhere around 400 rocks in the past year since I joined this group. My granddaughters (ages 6 & 4) like to paint rocks with me. We’ve spent many Sunday afternoons painting away. I have found about 10 rocks myself – my grand-daughters find them all the time – too many to count.
For the Week of February 25, 2018
For the week of February 25, 2018 Northeast Ohio Rocks! honors Fran Dosch as Artist of the Week. Below Fran shares her story.