Message Stones

The first time I can remember painting a rock as part of a creative activity was in a workshop I participated in based on the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. If you’re a creative person and you feel like you’re stuck in a rut I highly recommend that book as it—and I don’t use this word lightly—literally changed my life. It was as a result of going through that book and the exercises that we as a class did, in the time of my life that I was at at the moment, that I decided that I wanted to have another baby.

That’s a whole other story and I am certainly not saying that if you go through the book The Artist’s Way you’ll end up pregnant! But it can be life-changing for sure.

27-year-old me, at the end of the Artist’s Way workshop, and already (just) pregnant, and the rock I painted, still in my garden.

Many years and other life-altering events later, I found myself working with rocks again. I had had the opportunity to go back to school and pursue a Bachelor’s degree. Luckily I was able to transfer credits that I had earned my first time around, 20 years earlier. So I wouldn’t need a full 4 year commitment before I could get my degree and get a “legitimate” job. After struggling between Graphic Design and Fine Art, I chose Art Teacher! Yay. That’s another story, too.

One of the required classes for any art degree and one that everyone has to take within the first two years of their program, is 3-D design. Our school was privileged to host working professional artists as adjunct professors. My 3D class was taught by sculpture artist Mary Meyer, and was rife with history of artists who aren’t included in general art history courses. Some of my favorites were Jae Hyo Lee, Peter Randall-Page, and Andy Goldsworthy (below). 

I liked the fact that his installation pieces took on the beauty of the natural world in the immediate area. He used material that was native to the location. And composed it in such a way as to make the viewer believe that nature had just decided to make that pattern out of those elements in that shape, at that time, just when you decided to look at it. I’m also a huge fan of circles which he uses a lot in his work so it was immediately visually appealing to me. 

Mary also taught us—mostly visual artists, how to think in three dimensions. If you have an idea for a painting, what would it look like if you could stand up and walk around it? How would it take up the space? What does the negative space embody? (Negative space is the seemingly empty or blank area around the image.)

Our assignment was to create an outdoor art installation. We had the permission of the school to use the grounds and areas immediately surrounding the art building with a little bit of overflow. We were to choose a section and claim it, and plan our artwork around the space. We sketched our ideas and proposed them for approval.

I chose and was lucky enough to find an area that housed a small mesquite tree and a few sad little grass shrubs but it was in the shape of a perfect circle. The tree and shrubs were off-center so I had a good opening to work with even though I couldn’t work exactly in the center of the circle.

It was pretty labor intensive! I started being a rock-hunter. I sourced rocks from around our home & neighborhood, as well as around campus. I became a regular sight, tooling around the grounds with my wheelbarrow. I scrubbed and cleaned the rocks, sorted them by size and color, and pretty soon, things started to come together.

Interactive Art Installation

I sourced some rusty old hinges and cross-cut pieces of metal pipe from my neighbor’s scrap pile, added some tangent circles, and my compass was complete. It is situated due north. But even after that was done, it still seemed unfinished.

Positivity Rocks

That’s when it occurred to me to add little messages on the perimeter stones. I mean, they were perfectly smooth little canvases, staring out at me, practically begging to be drawn on! I used black, gold and silver Sharpie markers and the message stones were born. This also drew some interaction, as I would periodically find new messages written, but most of them had to be edited out :)

Ephemeral Art

As I worked on the piece, students and staff would stop and ask about the project. A few administrators and professors from my other classes would say, “Save that one for me!” as they claimed favorite message stones from the piece. At the end of the project, I replaced the message stones with plain ones, to avoid inviting graffiti.

But the cool thing was that the piece was so popular, that the administration voted to keep it installed. I was so flattered. This was the only time in the history of the campus that a student installation piece was left in place.

Most of the message stones found new homes, and the piece remained in place for the next 2 or so years. I visited it on several occasions when I had the chance to go back to campus. It was interesting to see it age and deteriorate, and then one day, it was gone. As is the nature of ephemeral art.

Revisiting Joy

Now, seven years later, I find myself drawing on rocks again. Once a rock collector, always a rock collector; and as such, one ends up with a lot of rocks around the house. I was partly inspired by an artist I follow on YouTube, Natasha Newton. Even though we have very different art styles, I think we have similar taste, and I really love her video editing style. I’m hoping to improve my videos by studying more of these vlog-style videos like hers. If this looks familiar, I’ve also mentioned her videos in my newsletter.

Natasha lives in England, and collects beach pottery, sea glass, and stones from beaches near her home. On some she paints simple patterns and others get adorned with folk-art inspired animal portraits. I found myself watching the video, getting lost in the work and thinking, “I should do that,” when I remembered my message stones.

Writing and hand lettering has always been a part of my practice, and this new round of message stones found me being more careful and curatorial in my practice. Instead of quickly jotting down a quote with a sharpie, I practiced a more deliberate form of lettering which I’ve been developing over the past few years, mostly for fun with my ink & calligraphy pen. I invested in higher quality paint pens, Lettered more deliberately, and finished them with a signature and a couple coats of varnish.

The stones have come out nicely, and have been well received. So much so that I’ve decided to add them to my shop. Each one is unique; natively discovered in my backyard, my neighborhood, other areas around Arizona, or maybe from a beach in California or Hawaii. Yes, I have been known to haul rocks home in my luggage! The best ones are super smooth and flat, like a skipping stone, but the rugged ones have their own character as well. My dog Penny likes to help me dig them up on our walks.

I’m happy to share these small tokens of positivity with others, and so glad to see how well they are received. I hope you enjoy them, too—or, are inspired to make your own! If you do, share it on instagram and tag me @heidhorch.