Brightening the world through painted rocks

Sally Ince/ News Tribune 
Rylee Arten, 8, paints her rock orange September 15, 2018 during the JC Rockfest at McClung Park. This was the first year JC Rocks held the free event for families to enjoy. The group provided all the materials for participants to paint rocks, enjoy food and held raffle with fun prizes for children and gift certificates for a family dinner.
Sally Ince/ News Tribune Rylee Arten, 8, paints her rock orange September 15, 2018 during the JC Rockfest at McClung Park. This was the first year JC Rocks held the free event for families to enjoy. The group provided all the materials for participants to paint rocks, enjoy food and held raffle with fun prizes for children and gift certificates for a family dinner.

People find them in the darndest places - those hand-painted rocks from JC Rocks.

They often show up near Jefferson City trails, along sidewalks or even inside businesses.

Some have even made their way to other countries.

JC Rocks, an organization that intends to spread love and inspiration through the simple gesture of painting rocks and sprinkling them through the community, held JC Rockfest 2018 on Saturday at McClung Park, where they set up tables and, well, painted rocks.

Charity Blair, an organizer, said she started the Facebook group about two years ago, when a friend asked her to join their group in another city. Blair said she really couldn't see herself participating with folks there but asked if she could borrow the idea for Missouri's Capital City.

She started her Facebook group that day. Within a few days, it expanded to 1,000 members. Now, it has more than 12,000.

"It's a cheap, easy way to put brightness out in the world," Blair said. "If somebody is having a bad day and they see one of these rocks, it could inspire them."

The activity works for people of all ages and artistic abilities, she said. Once painted using nontoxic, child-friendly paints, the rocks and stones are sprayed with a nontoxic sealant. Finally, a sticker is placed on the back with a link to the group's Facebook page.

Then the painters can place them in locations they feel the stones fit. People who find them are encouraged to post photos online and possibly take them home or move them around.

"It's fun to see where your rocks go," Blair said.

Organizers set up at the pavilion in the park Saturday, covered the tables with donated newsprint and began painting rocks. Paint and supplies came from Hobby Lobby and Walmart.

Although JC Rocks provided stones for the event, Tina Brondel brought her own - several rocks that had been "tumbled" for smoothness.

As she sat at a table at the entrance to the pavilion, greeting newcomers and putting their names in a bucket for drawings, she painted an oval-shaped stone.

It soon began to take on the appearance of a ladybug.

She said she normally uses naturally shaped rocks because they are a little more challenging.

"I'm a rock whisperer," she said. "I see things in rocks and paint what comes out."

Beside her palette on the table, wrapped in plastic, was a flat, oddly shaped slab of limestone about 6 inches wide. On it was painted a copy of the seal of Jefferson City.

Brondel gave it to Mayor Carrie Tergin when she arrived early Saturday morning.

Teressa Herigon, of West Plains, and her son, 4-year-old Shelby, sat at a table, carefully painting stones. As they worked, Blair brought them cookies.

Herigon worked on details of a penguin she was completing.

"We found our first rock at the Runge (Nature Center) about two years ago," Herigon said. "I had never heard of such a thing."

Herigon already liked to paint and decided to begin painting rocks regularly. She started sending the rocks out into the world.

For her mother-in-law, she painted a large rock with the image of a thunderbird. That rock has a high-profile home in her mother-in-law's rock garden.

Shelby worked with colors and said he was going to show his grandmother the work when he was done.

At another table, 5-year-old Macy Korsmeyer painted an orange mouse. The rock started out as a pumpkin, but a shape on one end reminded her of a mouse nose.

She was using four colors, primarily, Macy said - purple, black, orange and pink - and pointed out that she already had painted a flower on another rock nearby.